FundingNew Emmy Noether Junior Research Group in Legal Studies
Press Release No. 98/2024
30 August 2024
German Research Foundation grants Heidelberg researcher approximately 1.2 million euros in funding
The relationship between private international law and public international law is the field Dr Anton Zimmermann is going to investigate as leader of a new Emmy Noether Junior Research Group at Heidelberg University. In his research, the legal scholar from the Institute for Comparative Law, Conflicts of Law and International Business Law will explore the question of whether it is still reasonable to separate these two legal fields – together forming international law − and how they interact in the present. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is supporting the research work with funding worth 1.2 million euros over a period of six years.
“For a long time the two fields of law developed in different directions. While public international law was, above all, meant to serve the interests of states in protecting their sovereignty, private international law focused on the interests of private individuals,” Dr Zimmermann explains. The accompanying uncertainties in the relationship between the two legal fields have not only been academically unsatisfactory, he adds, they have in the past already proved relevant when it came to answering practical legal questions. For example, the Federal Court of Justice applied German law to a company founded in Alsace during the Second World War, although German rule over the territory had been established contrary to public international law. The decisive element here, according to the Heidelberg legal scholar, is whether, for the purposes of private international law, the state and its territory is measured by normative public international law or by factual criteria. Comparable questions arise, says Dr Zimmermann, with respect to regions that are currently occupied in contravention of public international law.
Public international law interdependencies – mutual dependence of legal fields – can be found particularly frequently in procedural law. For example, state sovereignty plays a central role for the borders of international jurisdictions and for the admissibility of judiciary actions in cross-border procedures, says Dr Zimmermann. Finally, human rights have particular significance in this context, too. “While they are part of public international law they are increasingly having an effect in private international law as well,” the Heidelberg legal scholar underlines.
Anton Zimmermann studied law at Heidelberg University. He then worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Comparative Law, Conflicts of Law and International Business Law, earning his doctorate in 2020 with a thesis on “The Statutory Restitution Claim”. Dr Zimmermann did his legal clerkship at the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court. He is currently pursuing a habilitation project on the points of contact between international procedural law and public international law. His research has taken him, inter alia, to the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg and to Kyoto University (Japan). At present the legal scholar also holds an adjunct lectureship at the National Law University Delhi (India). His Emmy Noether Group was launched in August 2024.
The Emmy Noether Programme of the German Research Foundation gives exceptionally qualified young researchers the opportunity to prepare for a university professorship by leading an independent junior research group over a period of six years.