Dr. Hannah Kiel

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Erfurt, where I teach the theory and practice of resilient democracy, and fundamental and human rights, at the Global Justice Clinic. I also coordinate the DFG-funded Völkerrechtsblog-project.

I hold a PhD from Freie Universität Berlin, awarded for a dissertation on the erosion of international legal norms driven by discourse, examined through the example of arms deliveries to non-state actors („Arms Transfers to Non-State Actors. The Erosion of Norms in International Law” Edward Elgar Publishing 2024). The project was developed at the Collaborative Research Centre 700 “Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood” and refined during research visits to the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law at the University of Melbourne and the Max Bell School of Policy at McGill University in Montréal.

My research is closely related to human rights practice. Key inspirations for my work have grown out of my involvement in strategic litigation with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), focusing on arms exports and the Ramstein Air Base, as well as my UN-level advocacy on regulating arms export regimes and addressing gender-based violence.

I am particularly interested in how civil society influences autocratic and liberal transformations of the law. To this end, I work at the intersection of legal doctrine and socio-psychological dimensions of societal power structures and in collaboration with the Society for Civil Liberties (GFF).