Alexander von Humboldt Professorship awarded to legal researcher Anne van Aaken“Outstanding researcher with an innovative approach”

9 May 2018, by Sarah Batelka

Photo: Humboldt-Stiftung/ Svea Pietschmann

Minister for Education and Research Anja Karliczek, prize winner Prof. Dr. Anne van Aaken, President of the Alexander Humboldt Foundation Prof. Dr. Hans-Christian Pape, President of Universität Hamburg Prof. Dr. Dieter Lenzen (from left to right)

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has awarded Prof. Dr. Anne van Aaken from Universität Hamburg with the renowned Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in Berlin. Prof. van Aaken is recognized internationally as a distinguished expert in the field of economic analysis of law. She investigates fundamental questions of international law, with a particular focus on international economic law and legal theory.

The Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, valued at 5 million Euro, is the most valuable international research award in Germany. The honor was bestowed by Minister for Education and Research, Anja Karliczek and the President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Hans-Christian Pape. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has been awarding this distinction to leading, internationally active researchers from all disciplines since 2008. In that time, 50 professorships for up to 5 years each have been granted, in an effort encourage internationally renowned researchers to Germany and strengthen the German research field.

Prof. Dr. Anne van Aaken is the first female legal scholar in Germany to be awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship. This is the third Alexander von Humboldt Professorship for Universität Hamburg, with Prof. van Aaken to join particle physicist Prof. Dr. Brian Foster and art historian Prof. Dr. Frank Fehrenbach. Van Aaken’s research explores the boundaries between law and economics, particularly in international law and behavioral economics. At Universität Hamburg, she strengthens the faculty’s two current areas of potential, “International Affairs, European and Transnational Law” and “Law in Context” in the field of “Behavioral Law and Economics” research. Her research provides an important link between legal and economic research in Hamburg and the fundamental research conducted into theoretical questions of international law and the interface between the economic and social sciences.

In his laudation, President, Prof. Dr. Dieter Lenzen, said “With Anne van Aaken, we have succeeded in appointing an exceptional scholar to the Faculty of Law. Bringing an innovative approach to legal research, with field experiments and laboratory tests, Anne van Aaken has successfully provided useful experimental insights for shaping the law. Her research encompasses an area that stretches from international commercial law through to issues like corruption, and the supervision and regulation of financial markets.

Prior to her appointment at Universität Hamburg, Anne van Aaken worked as Professor of Law and Economics, Legal Theory, International and European Law at the University of St Gallen. After completing her doctoral studies in 2001 at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), and positions as a postdoctoral research associate at the Humboldt University, and as a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg and Bonn, she began a tenure-track professorship at the University of St Gallen in 2006. She completed her habilitation (postdoctoral qualification) in 2012 at Osnabrück University. She was also a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin during the academic year 2010/2011. Anne van Aaken moved to Universität Hamburg on 1 August 2018.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has posted a video portrait of Prof. Dr. Anne van Aaken on its website.