Students interested in spending a semester at Tulane Law School (New Orleans) in 2024/2025 must register for an essay test at the Chair of Common Law. The test, which invites discussion of a contemporary issue of American constitutional law, is a compulsory part of the application process and will be administered in room (JUR) VR 147b on December 15th, 2023 from 2:00-4:00 p.m. Third semester students can register by email via elke.albert@uni-passau.de. Please include your Matrikelnummer. The deadline for registration is December 14th, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. 

Find more information about the exchange at commonlaw.jura.uni-passau.de/en/student-exchanges/.

The essay test for students interested in spending a semester in the United States (Tulane Law School in Louisiana or Moritz College of Law in Ohio) will be offered on 18 December 2018 at 16:00 in JUR SR 153. Applicants must register for the test by 10 December 2018 (by 11:00) via the Chair of Common Law (Ms. Sylvia Böhm, room 312 JUR). Passau can send four students to Tulane and another single student to Ohio each year. Successful candidates do not pay tuition.

Tulane Professor Adeno Addis to teach in Passau in November

Disputes involving the reach of executive power, judicial independence, the inner workings of the Senate, federalism, and human rights protection have mired the first months of the Trump Presidency and triggered an intense national debate about fundamental aspects of the U.S. Constitution. Adeno Addis, a distinguished constitutional scholar from Tulane Law School in New Orleans/Louisiana, will be co-teaching with Professor Fedtke a short course covering some of these issues during a visit to Passau in November and December 2017. The aim is to discuss key questions of American constitutionalism in their contemporary guise and to identify – wherever possible – current trends in the development of the country’s constitutional infrastructure.

Contemporary Issues of U.S. Constitutional Law Syllabus.

This course earns credit towards the "Pflichtfremdsprachenschein" (§ 24 Abs. 2 JAPO). The exam will be offered on December 18, 2017, 6:00 p.m., HS 14 JUR.

Sir Jeffrey Jowell in Passau on May 18, 2017 – HS 14 at 6:00 PM

The Chair of Common Law is hosting Sir Jeffrey Jowell, KCMG QC on Thursday, May 18 at 6:00 PM in HS 14 (Juridicum, Innstraße 39) for a conversation about Brexit and the Rule of Law. Sir Jeffrey is Emeritus Professor of Public Law at University College London (UCL) and one of the UK’s leading voices in the area of human rights protection, democracy, and the rule of law. He has acted as advisor for many governments and transition processes across the globe. Sir Jeffrey served, inter alia, on the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission from 2000 to 2011 and was until last year Founding Director of the prestigious Bingham Center for the Rule of Law at the British Institute for Comparative and International Law in London. The event will be held in English.

The United Kingdom is leaving the European Union. Or is it? The Heads of State and Government, at least, are meeting without Prime Minister Theresa May and pressing the UK to finally notify the EU of its intention to exit under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. They have yet to hear from London.

Where did the so-called ‘Brexit’ come from, how will it work in constitutional and commercial practice, is it a threat to the future of the EU, how does it affect predominantly pro-EU Scotland and Northern Ireland, and how is daily life for ‘EU-foreigners’ in the UK after the referendum? Dr. Florian Wagner-von Papp, Reader in Law at University College London, Dr. Tobias Lock, Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, and Dr. Egbert Klautke, Senior Lecturer at the History Department of University College London, will discuss these and related questions during a conversation with Professor Dr. Jörg Fedtke on November 10, 2016 at 6:00 PM in (JUR) SR 14.

Mindy Nunez Duffourc, a graduate from the University of North Carolina School of Law (JD 2008) and litigation attorney from New Orleans, will spend a year researching medical malpractice law at the Chair of Common Law in 2016/2017. The comparative study, which focuses on the regulatory practice of healthcare providers, statutory rights of patients, alternative dispute resolution in medical malpractice cases and the impact of juries on the level of awards in the United States and Germany, is funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s German Chancellor Fellowship Program. A limited number of German Chancellor Fellowships are awarded to prospective leaders from the United States, the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China, Brazil and India each year. The Program, which enjoys the patronage of the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, is financed by the German Foreign Office.

Students interested in studying U.S. law as part of their German law degree have an opportunity to speak to Professor Fedtke and members of his team about Wahlschwerpunkte 27 and 28 on May 10, 2016 during an information session organized by the Faculty of Law in Audimax (AM) Hörsaal 10. Professor Fedtke will provide details of the Schwerpunktbereiche and information about semester abroad possibilities, LL.M programs and bar exams in the United States. The event starts at 6:00 p.m.

China is currently developing a new economic strategy, officially known as the One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative, which aims to rebuild the ancient Silk Road that connected the country's markets with Europe many centuries ago. The idea is to develop deeper economic, political and cultural ties with nations situated between China and the EU, and is paired with a similar strategy aimed at enhancing cooperation with its Asian neighbors (in particular the ASEAN, Pakistan and Australia). Professor Fedtke recently joined the Belt and Road Research Institute of Hong Kong as a member of its International Advisory Board. The Institute will address a wide range of issues related to OBOR - in particular questions of free trade, political integration, and regional security. Hong Kong, a common law jurisdiction and a part of China (one country, two systems), is the ideal location for this new think tank.

On 16 October 2015, Professor Fedtke discussed developments in Tunisia with Dr. Habib Lejmi, representative of the Ennahdha party in Germany, on occasion of a round table organized by Tunisia in Transition, a group of young researchers from Tunisia and Germany with deep roots in Passau. Professor Fedtke has followed the Arab Spring closely and worked with members of constitutional assemblies, political parties and NGOs in the area of human rights protection, judicial review and multi-level governance in Iraq, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia for more than a decade. He is currently assisting ATIDE (Association Tunisienne pour l’ntégrité et la démocratie des élections) in an analysis of decentralization efforts in Tunisia.

Sonja Ebert, a graduate of the Faculty of Law in Passau, is currently taking an LL.M at Tulane Law School in the United States. Ms. Ebert received one of the scholarships offered through the Chair of Common Law. She is happy to answer questions about the LL.M, Tulane, and life in New Orleans. Students interested in this opportunity to study in the United States can contact Ms. Ebert directly at sonja.ebert@gmail.com.

Professor Fedtke participated in a panel organized by the German Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (the leading association of German universities) to discuss the current state of affairs and options for increasing the international content of university curricula in Germany. The conference, titled Internationalisation at Home, took place in Berlin on 1/2 December 2014. Workshops, lectures and panel discussions focused on a number of organizational, financial and curricular issues related to the internationalization of higher education in Germany. The event was part of a comprehensive review and strategic assessment of German higher education that the Hochschulrektorenkonferenz has been conducting since 2009.