(...) Prof. Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers gave the lecture "A Comparative and Critical View of Civil Rights and Law in the US and Germany" together with Prof. Peter T. Wendel (Pepperdine School of Law). They explained that human rights in Europe and the USA have the same roots and goals and yet are very differently structured. In a comparative legal analysis, they noted that freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly and freedom of property are interpreted more extensively in the United States than in Europe, while in Germany, in particular, the focus of fundamental rights theory is on the principle of proportionality, which attempts to balance conflicting interests.