Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem, LL.M.
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem, LL.M., (born 1940) studied Law in Hamburg, Freiburg i. Br., Munich and Berkeley. He has been Professor for Public Law and Administration at the University of Hamburg since 1974. He was the director of the Hans Bredow Institute from 1979 and chairperson of the newly created directorate of the Institute from July 1998 until December 1999, until the beginning of his activities as Law Senator of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (September 1995 to November 1997). From 1999 to 2008 he was a member of the directorate subsequent to being appointed a judge of the Federal Constitutional Court. He has been the director of the research centre on environmental law at the University of Hamburg since 1994 and academic head of the research centre for law and innovation since 1995. He spent research and teaching leave at Stanford Law School, Harvard Law School, Toulane Law School, Hastings College of the Law and the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, and was, among other things, a member of the commission of experts on new media, Baden-Württemberg, of the commission of enquiry on new information and communications technologies of the German federal parliament, the commission of enquiry on parliamentary reform of the Parliament of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, as well as of the “Kommission Medienverantwortung” (“Commission on Media Responsibility”) ordered by Federal President von Weizsäcker. He publishes on questions of media law and media sociology as well as on constitutional and administrative law, commercial and environmental law, police law and the sociology of law. Projects at the Institute were, among others, basic rights of media freedom, protection of young people, supervision of broadcasting in Germany and other industrialised countries, Hamburg as media location, the relationship of media law and telecommunications law, political advising in the media area. Since 2007, he has been the German delegate at the European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission). From October 2009 to summer 2010 he spent ten months at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, researching on law and innovation.
Latest lectures
„Verfassungsrechtlicher Persönlichkeitsschutz und Infrastrukturschutz in der vernetzten Kommunikation“ [Personality Protection by Constitutional Law and Protection of Infrastructure in Connected Communication], lecture by W. Hoffmann-Riem at the Juristische Studiengesellschaft [Legal Studies Association] in Karlsruhe on 22 June 2009.
„Nachvollziehende Medienregulierung“ [Comprehensive Media Regulation], keynote by W. Hoffmann-Riem at the conference "Media Governance in Europe – Regulation, Participation, Co-Determination" in Hamburg on 20 June 2009.
"Die Entwicklung des Rechtsstaats – der Beitrag der politischen Grundrechte" [Development of the constitutional State – the Contribution of Fundamental Political Rights], lecture by W. Hoffmann-Riem on the occasion of a commemoration of “60 Jahre Grundgesetz” [60 Years of Basic Law] by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Prague on 25 May 2009.
"Highlights verfassungsrechtlicher Rechtsprechung - 60 Jahre lebende Verfassung" [Highlights of Jurisdiction by Constitutional Law- 60 Years of Living Constitution], lecture by W. Hoffmann-Riem at the invitation of the students organisation The European Law Student's Association ELSA-Deutschland on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Basic Law in Hamburg on 22 April 2009.
"Zwischen Bedrohen und Bewahren: Der Staat und die Freiheit der Kommunikation" [Between Threat and Conservation: The State and the Freedom of Communication], lecture by W. Schulz and W. Hoffmann-Riem in the context of the event series "nachgedacht – 60 Jahre Grundgesetz" [Due Consideration - 60 Years of Basic Law] at the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg on 21 April 2009.
Speech by W. Hoffmann-Riem on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich on 27 March 2009.
