Mission Statement of the Faculty of Law
The mission statement underscores the Faculty’s forward-looking profile and reflects the identity of the Faculty members. It serves as a guide for making decisions within our legal and financial means.
The mission statement is an avowal to law as a peacekeeping, inclusive, and equalizing force in pluralistic societies.
It recognizes the individuality of all members of the Faculty. The mission statement reflects the goals of Universität Hamburg, for example, as outlined in the University’s own mission statement. It takes into account the specific requirements of law in studies, research, and teaching in the Faculty.
The mission statement may be revised. The Faculty continually strives to ensure that the principles set forth in the mission statement remain valid.
Against this backdrop, the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Law at Universität Hamburg adopted the following mission statement on 17 December 2014.
1. Location and Faculty members
Hamburg, the campus, and the Faculty are diverse. The Faculty's diversity is reflected in the makeup of its members, the wide range of their interests, and the spectrum of legal issues and methodologies for dealing with these issues. This diversity enriches research, studies, and teaching in the Faculty.
Subitem 1
Hamburg is an exciting, creative, and cosmopolitan city. Its cultural, political, and economic spectrum offers all Faculty members opportunities to get involved and contribute. This urban diversity shapes both Universität Hamburg and the Faculty of Law.
Subitem 2
As a major institution, Universität Hamburg provides inspiration and opportunity for the academic and personal development of all Faculty members. The large, modern Central Law Library is representative of the wide range of educational opportunities in the field of law. The Library is also a place of interaction and academic and personal exchange.
Subitem 3
The Faculty brings together people in different phases of life, with different aspirations, and from many different cities and countries. All members can contribute to daily life in the Faculty and on campus as they see fit and the Faculty provides incentives for getting involved.
2. Learning by doing
Lawyers play a significant role in shaping social issues. Teaching staff recognize that the law is both abiding and dynamic. They also address the basic principles of law. Education and training in the degree programs do not solely aim to impart legal expertise, however. The degree programs also place the law curriculum in a social context and integrate legal practice as appropriate. Students learn to use their knowledge responsibly and with dedication.
Subitem 1
Normative thinking and work with normative texts and terms are essential to the study of the law. Normativeness however is not an end in itself. It is precisely the consideration of legal norms in light of social reality that promotes a responsible and reflective approach to law.
Subitem 2
We make it a priority to support students in their personal development. This requires, among other things, teaching approaches that focus on student needs and are evaluated and subsequently anchored in law teaching.
Subitem 3
The Faculty supports students in a variety of ways to help them gain practical knowledge and hands-on experience. This includes providing students with opportunities for gaining insight into legal practice, helping students establish contact with legal practitioners, and integrating practical perspectives into teaching.
3. Europeanization and internationalism
Consideration of European and international issues is an integral part of law, law research, and law education in a globalized world. Internationalism has a long tradition in the Faculty and shapes current research and teaching in many ways. The Faculty promotes (law-related) cultural exchange.
Subitem 1
An understanding of the interconnectedness and mutual influence of national, international, and European law is closely linked to the ability to treat foreign (legal) cultures respectfully. Steady European integration and the establishment of a peaceful international community require us to critically examine our own (legal) culture and also develop an understanding for the special characteristics of other (legal) cultures.
Subitem 2
The program imparts European and international viewpoints in the required German law subjects and increasingly in the language, basic principle, and key qualification courses, as well as in the concentration areas.
Subitem 3
Visiting students and academics are invited to learn, teach, and research in the Faculty. Conversely, we encourage Hamburg students and academics to go abroad and participate in international projects; the knowledge they gain is recognized and integrated into research and teaching in the Faculty. International exchange is characterized by openness and cooperation.
4. Interdisciplinary dialog
The scholarly exchange of ideas between disciplines is a prerequisite for context-sensitive research, teaching, and legal practice. As part of Universität Hamburg, a comprehensive university, the Faculty benefits from its proximity and institutional connections to other University faculties. It is also committed to scholarly cooperation with other national and international institutions in subject-specific and interdisciplinary matters.
Subitem 1
Extra-juridical knowledge is often necessary to establish the facts, but also to interpret legal standards. To promote interdisciplinary law studies, the Faculty incorporates knowledge from other disciplines into research and teaching.
Subitem 2
Connecting individual disciplines is the counterpart to the specialization of knowledge. It is indispensable to finding solutions to the complex legal issues of a globalized world.
Subitem 3
The Faculty values being an integral part of a comprehensive university and the opportunities it offers. Interdisciplinary exchange inspires critical reflection upon one's own field. Interdisciplinary courses, activities, and information strengthen the Faculty's connections.
5. Judicial critique and reflection
The Faculty has drawn its lesson from history and is committed in all of its endeavors to critical reflection upon, among other things, current social developments. Fundamental and human rights, the cornerstones of the legal system, are therefore given special importance in the degree programs.
Subitem 1
In light of the devastating transition from the Weimar Republic to the Third Reich, which did not spare the field law, the Faculty feels a moral responsibility to emphasize the basic rights granted in the German constitution, and to critically examine and come to terms with the past in an appropriate framework.
Subitem 2
In its historical approach, the Faculty does not simply commemorate; it illuminates various dynamics and imparts an understanding of process. The Faculty underscores the necessity of civil courage, which begins with the courage to tackle critical issues.
Subitem 3
Critical reflection makes it possible to anticipate social developments and to influence sustainable law-making and legal practice. In this way, researchers, instructors, and students also uphold law as a key instrument of social order.
6. Autonomy
Both teaching and research require autonomy for critical reflection. This autonomy allows the members of the Faculty to cultivate and reflect upon their own views of law in studies, research, and teaching.
Subitem 1
The Faculty sees itself as a scholarly think tank for researchers and students. This openness facilitates the University's commitment to actively participate in social developments.
Subitem 2
In the course of their studies, students acquire a wide range of knowledge that they apply in their work on legal issues. Despite the amount of work, learning also requires room for reflection. This is the only way to ensure that students understand what they learn and can use their knowledge flexibly and confidently in a variety of contexts.
Subitem 3
Findings from legal research provide valuable momentum for the further development of positive laws and ensure that legal work is supported by theory. As part of our teaching, we keep students abreast of research findings. The Faculty provides students with opportunities to gain insight into the field of legal research.
7. Communication
Open, respectful cooperation between all Faculty members is a prerequisite for depth and inspiration in studies, research, and teaching. The Faculty strives to motivate its members to network and foster personal contacts.
Subitem 1
To ensure a high level of participation on its committees and to promote the acceptance of the committees and their decisions, the Faculty provides comprehensive information about current projects. It guarantees channels for exchange within and across various groups within the Faculty. This encourages active cooperation.
Subitem 2
The Faculty provides the framework for personal contact and direct exchange. This includes courses, rooms, and structural planning in studies, teaching, and research. It especially strives to foster personal contact and direct exchange in work relationships and course-related supervision. In the case of conflicts, we encourage the parties immediately involved to seek a resolution; if necessary, mediation by a third party can be sought to achieve an amicable solution.
Subitem 3
Both in teaching and daily life, the Faculty encourages students' ability to work in teams and to take responsibility for one another to minimize competitiveness and foster a pleasant learning atmosphere. With is fair decision-making practices, the Faculty reduces the pressure to perform.
8. Participation
The Faculty makes decisions with care and with input from its members. These decisions are transparent and arrived at in democratic committees, courses, and activities that encourage the broad participation of its members. With this understanding, members also take part in decision-making processes outside of the Faculty.
Subitem 1
The Faculty makes decisions in a transparent manner and in committees with equal representation. Fundamental decisions, in particular, are deliberated over a longer period of time in (non-standing) groups created specifically for this purpose. All Faculty members are welcome to participate. Participation promotes identification with decisions and a positive and productive atmosphere in the Faculty.
Subitem 2
A central forum and an annual Faculty day help ensure that all Faculty members work together. In this forum, the office of the dean regularly reports on developments in areas defined in the mission statement. Building on this, we discuss the future and plan specific projects that will strengthen the Faculty's profile and reflect our understanding of the mission statement.
Subitem 3
Research topics, ideas for didactic development, and administrative improvements also largely take place outside of the Faculty. The Faculty therefore encourages its members to take part in outside discourse and to introduce their newfound knowledge to the Faculty to inspire advances.
9. Nondiscrimination
The Faculty uses all available resources to prevent discrimination on the basis of age, sexual orientation, social or religious background, gender, race, or disability. It also aims to eliminate gender stereotyping in teaching, examinations, and administration.
Subitem 1
A discrimination-free environment is the result of dedicated work and attentive, respectful interaction. Diversity in human resources and scholarship within the Faculty offers opportunities for innovation and advancement. This is why the Faculty strives to protect and promote this diversity.
Subitem 2
The Faculty promotes programs that critically reflect upon the experience of discrimination. It also supports activities that address discrimination and equality academically.
10. Accessibility
The Faculty advocates barrier-free research, teaching, and learning. This includes physical accessibility as well as the steady reduction of social, linguistic, and technical barriers.
Subitem 1
During reconstruction and modernization measures, the Faculty ensures physical access and takes the needs of those who rely on barrier-free access to the Faculty into account. The home page and the technical organization of studies, research, and teaching are barrier-free. The Faculty strives to ensure that any technical deficiencies that occur do not result in de facto disadvantages for students in the course of their studies.
Subitem 2
The Faculty continually dismantles social barriers. It supports those who are the first in their family to study by encouraging them to take up studies and by providing special opportunities during their studies. It also provides comparable programs for young researchers. There are advising programs and special assistance available for students who are having difficulties completing their studies.
11. Work-life balance
The Faculty creates the work, research, and study conditions its members need to combine their career with family life and personal aspirations.
Subitem 1
Students, researchers, instructors, and administrative staff have different personal backgrounds and curriculum vitae. In planning, the Faculty takes relevant individual needs into account. For example, it enables students to study part-time while working.
Subitem 2
In the qualification period, students and researchers with children are under extremely high pressure before establishing their career path. The Faculty supports them with programs that aim to make studies or a further academic qualification both family-friendly and possible.