Spokeo v. Robins -- Brief of Public Law Professors as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent

The 50th Assistententagung, the annual meeting of public law assistants, convened this year in Greifswald. Greifswald is not only home to academic institutions, but also has a long legal history and is the host city of both the State Constitutional Court and the Highest Court of Administrative Law in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The meeting's aim was to facilitate an exchange between postdoctoral and doctoral candidates on questions relating to public law. Until 1959, the assistants in public law, who are usually conducting doctoral or post-doctoral studies, had been admitted to the annual meeting of public law professors. Assistants could benefit from professors' wealth of experience, including how to structure lectures and how to answer difficult questions, through participation in the Public Law Professors' Meeting. With the exclusion of non-professors from the annual Staatsrechtslehrertagung in the 1950s, assistants no longer had a forum to learn how to perform as academics. This exclusion resulted in the beginning of the annual meeting of German-speaking public law assistants in 1961 in Hamburg, to which not only postdoctoral candidates, but also doctoral candidates were welcomed. The meeting served as both a training course and an opportunity for academic exchange. And it was therefore in accordance with tradition that Jörg Scharrer, who hosted the first panel, had to ask the dean of the law faculty at Greifswald University, Prof. Dr. Axel Beater, to leave the building before opening the first session.

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The First Edinburgh Chair in Law: Grotius and the Scottish Enlightenment

Enlightenment, Legal Education, and Critique ◽

10.3366/edinburgh/9780748682133.003.0004 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

John W Cairns

Keyword(s):

Natural Law ◽

Legal Education ◽

Public Law ◽

Scottish Enlightenment ◽

Intellectual Content ◽

Hugo Grotius ◽

University Of Edinburgh ◽

The Law ◽

The University ◽

Law Professors

This chapter examines the development of teaching from the chair of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations at the University of Edinburgh during the Scottish Enlightenment, with particular emphasis on the intellectual content of the classes and the politics of professorial appointments. For the first half-century, law teaching from the chair was intermittent. However, this does not mean that the holder was incapable or unlearned. When the holder of the chair did teach, the class was based on Hugo Grotius' De iure belli ac pacis libri tres. The chapter first provides an overview of legal education in Scottish universities before profiling the law professors who were appointed to the new chair between 1707 and 1831, including Charles Areskine, William Kirkpatrick, George Abercromby, Robert Bruce, James Balfour, Allan Maconochie, and Robert Hamilton. Robert Bruce was the last holder of the chair to teach Grotius' natural law.

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Encuesta sobre la integración política de Europa (II) = Academic survey about constitutionalization of European Union (II)

Teoría y Realidad Constitucional ◽

10.5944/trc.33.2014.13037 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 1 (33) ◽

pp. 11

Author(s):

Benito Aláez Corral ◽

Enrique Álvarez Conde ◽

Paloma Biglino Campos ◽

Rafael Bustos Gisbert ◽

Teresa Freixes Sanjuán ◽

...

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

Public Law ◽

Democratic Deficit ◽

Law Professors

En esta encuesta un grupo de Catedráticos de Derecho Público responden a preguntas sobre la construcción constitucional de Europa relacionadas con la crisis del concepto tradicional de soberanía, con el déficit democrático en las instituciones de la Unión Europea y en los Estados miembros, y sobre la legitimidad y las formas de legitimación de la Unión Europea.In this academic survey a group of Public Law Professors answer questions about constitutionalization of European Unión: about the crisis of the traditional sovereignty concept, the democratic deficit in UE institutions and in State members, and about legitimacy and legitimization in UE.

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Encuesta sobre la renovación del Tribunal Constitucional

Teoría y Realidad Constitucional ◽

10.5944/trc.28.2011.6954 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 13

Author(s):

Teoría y Realidad Constitucional

Keyword(s):

Present Situation ◽

Public Law ◽

Constitutional Court ◽

Law Professors

This academic survey, answered by Public Law Professors, focuses on the present situation of the Spanish Constitutional Court, and this Professors express their opinions about the composition of the Court, the new way on which its members are appointed by the Parliaments of the «Comunidades Autonomas», the requirements to be elected, the new rule relative to the «prorrogatio» in the term of office, and the delay in the election of the new members.Esta encuesta académica, a la que responden un grupo de Profesores de Derecho Constitucional, está dedicada a la renovación del Tribunal Constitucional y en ella se responde a preguntas relativas a su composición, el nuevo sistema de elección de magistrados en el que intervienen las Asambleas Legislativas de las CCAA, los requisitos de elegibilidad, la nueva norma sobre la «prorrogatio» de funciones y los retrasos en los nombramientos de nuevos magistrados.

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The European Constitution: Notes on the National Meeting of German Public Law Assistants

German Law Journal ◽

10.1017/s2071832200013924 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 793-803 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Daniel Thym

Keyword(s):

Annual Meeting ◽

Academic Career ◽

Academic Culture ◽

Public Law ◽

National Meeting ◽

University System ◽

European Constitution ◽

The Past ◽

Professional Independence ◽

Law Professors

Each academic culture has its own customs and rituals. In German public law, the annual meeting of public law professors is much more than a conference. Together with their Swiss and Austrian counterparts, German public law professors have met annually since 1922 (with the exception of 1932-48) to discuss contributions carefully prepared and presented by selective speakers, which are meticulously analyzed by their audience. Failure in the eyes of colleagues may ruin an academic career, although participants report that the traditional rigidity has been eased in recent years. Given the prestige and exclusivity of the meeting, it is not surprising that it was copied by Germany's university assistants in public law, who under the German university system often have to wait until the end of their thirties to step out from the shadow of their “academic fathers” and obtain professional independence as professors in their own right. Thus, “young” German public law assistants – in partnership with their Austrian and Swiss counterparts – have also been meeting regularly over the past 45 years to debate various topics of public law and position themselves within the aspiring next generation of public lawyers; and the 2005 meeting in the Westphalian city of Bielefeld signals that the debate on German public law will indeed be enriched by some promising new scholars.

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