Prof. Dr. Alexander Proelss

Prof. Proelss studied law in Bonn and Tübingen and passed the first state examination in law in 2000. He was subsequently employed as research associate at the chair of Professor Wolfgang Graf Vitzthum in Tübingen, where he was awarded his doctorate degree in 2003 with a thesis on „Protection of the Oceans under Public International Law and European Law“.

During his legal clerkship, Prof. Proelss was, inter alia, based at the Federal Constitutional Court. In 2004, he passed the bar exam and was afterwards appointed assistant professor at Tübingen Universityʼs law faculty. As such, he was seconded for a period of 1,5 years to the Federal Constitutional Court (department of Justice Prof. Dr. Dr. Udo Di Fabio).

In July 2007, Proelss was appointed Professor for Public Law with a focus on the Law of the Sea at Kiel University. As co-director of the Walther-Schücking-Institute for International Law and member of the interdisciplinary cluster of excellence The Future Ocean“, he held this professorship from September 2007 until September 2010. During that time, Proelss was awarded the venia legendi (Habilitation) for public law, public international law and European Union law by the Faculty of Law of Tübingen University.

From October 2010 to September 2018, Prof. Proelss held the chair in public international law and European law at Trier University. He was director of the Institute of Environmental Law (IUTR) (since January 2011), member of the board of the Center for European Studies (ZES) (since May 2011) and director of the Institute for Legal Policy (IRP). He declined the offer of a chair at Bremen University in July 2015. Since October 2018, Prof. Proelss holds the chair in the international law of the sea and international environmental law, public international law and public law at the University of Hamburg. His research focuses, among aspects of general international and European Union law, on the international law of the sea, international environmental law as well as international aspects of German constitutional law. Prof. Proelss is involved in several legal and interdisciplinary research projects and has advised government agencies, international organisations, private companies and NGOs at several occasions.