Research

Research at the professorship is dedicated to public international law and international administrative law, in particular the law of international institutions, human rights law, law and development, as well as comparative and interdisciplinary foundations, especially from the perspective of the Global South.

Michael Riegner is Principal Investigator in the third-party funded projects Varieties of constitutionalism, Amazon of Rights and Postcolonial Hierarchies in Peace and Conflict.  He is also a professorial member of the junior research groups Center for Political Practices and Orders and Effective and Innovative Policymaking in Contested Contexts. 

Information on these and other projects can be found on the Projects page.

The following is an overview of Prof. Michael Riegner's research interests and projects. A complete list of publications can be found on this page.

International administrative law

International law

Comparative constitutional law

Science communication and knowledge transfer

  • Co-editor and co-responsible for the DFG-project Völkerrechtsblog
  • Consultant for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and international organizations

Current lectures and events

  • Presentation: "The company as constitutional intermediary" at the conference "Decoding the Rights of Companies in the Technocene" at Lund University, 04. and 05.12.2023
  • Presentation: "Transnational corporate accountability for corruption and environmental harm: The case of TÜV
    Süd / Brumadinho" at Universität Heidelberg University, 01. and 02.12.2023
  • Lecture: Business and Human Rights in the framework of the project "Varieties of Constitutionalism" in Rio de Janeiro, 21. and 22.3.2023 
  • Lecture: "The Right to Truth" in the context of the series "Tuesday Talks", 31.01.2023
  • Inaugural Lecture: "Economy in Systemic Conflict," joint inaugural lecture by Prof. Dr. S. Hoffmann and Prof. Dr. M. Riegner, Jan. 18, 2023
  • Radio interview: Elections in Brazil, 01.11.2022
  • Lecture: „The EU rule of law crisis and the global circulation of illiberal legal ideas”, Erfurt, 25.10.2022
  • Lecture: "Sustainability and Participation in the Law of multilateral development banks", 10th Brazilian-German Symposium on Sustainable Development, Niteroi/Brazil, 15.09.2022
  • Präsentation des Dokumentarfilms "Amazon of Rights" & Organisation zweier Panels, Law and Society Association Conference, Lisbon, 14.7.22
  • Conference: Annual conference of the “World Comparative Law” journal and its network, Berllin/Erfurt, 30.06./01.07.22
  • Workshop: "Contestations of liberalism in German and Brazilian constitutional law" at Humboldt University Berlin on 27./28.06.2022
  • Workshop: "Varieties of constitutionalism and constitutional democracy in Brazil and Germany" (Varieties of Constitutionalism), Insper São Paulo, 07.-08.03.2022
  • Guest Lecture: "Hate Speech in Comparative Constitutional Law", Insper São Paulo, 03.03.2022
  • Lecture: "Canonizing the Corporation", Frankfurt am Main, 28.02.2022
  • Lecture on the process of making and the content of the documentary film "Jatun Yacu - Amazon of Rights", Bogotá, 09.02.2022
  • Panel discussion "Religion - Society - World Relationship", presentation of the research project "Varieties of Constitutionalism", Erfurt, 08.12.2021
  • Panel discussion "Cities and their global networks - reshaping global governance and international law?", The Hague, 17.11.2021
  • Presentation "Varieties of Constitutionalism in North-South perspective", 5th Annual Conference Law and Development Research Network, Nelson Mandela University Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 24-26.11.2021
  • "Promises and pitfalls of a framework treaty for business and human rights", Input to the webinar series "Supporting the operation of a framework treaty in practice", University of Dundee, 30.9.2021
  • Discussion series on the book launch "The Global South and Comparative Constitutional Law", University of Hong Kong, 2.9.2021; Insper São Paulo, 30.4.2021; University of Johannesburg, 28.4.2021
  • Lecture and Panel "Varieties of Constitutionalism", ICON-S Mundo Conference (online), 9.7.2021
  • "Regulation of extractive industries from a sustainable development perspective", University of Antwerp (online), 31.3.3021
  • "Trump vs. Facebook: On the Constitutionalisation of Transnational Expression Law on Digital Platforms", University of Bremen (online), 16.2.2021

Doctoral supervision

Requests for supervision of PhD projects in the thematic spectrum of the professorship should be sent with a short sketch of the topic to Prof. Michael Riegner.

List of currently supervised PhD projects:

  •  "Shareholder Primacy and Stakeholder Conflicts in Corporations", Neeraj Grover
  • “The Soldier and the Constitution in Brazil: Alternity and Insularity in the Armed Forces heterodox interpretation of the Army’s powers and limits”, Evandro Sussekind
  • "Political Instrumentalization of Anti-Corruption Agenda Using the Example of the "Car Wash" Operation in Latin America", Jessica Holl
  • Towards Quasi-Judicial Self-Empowerment? An Analysis of the Meta Oversight Board, Jasmin Wachau 
  • International climate finance - a legal view at German practice, Lisa Palmen