2003 - present Director of the Institute for German, European und International Family Law
2001 - present Full Professor, University of Bonn (chair)
2012 - present Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Centre 'Law as Culture'
2006 - 2008 Ad hoc Judge at the European Court of Human Rights
1986 - 1987 Consultant at the Federal Trade Commission Washington D.C.
1982 - 1986, 1987 - 1997 Research Assistant and Academic Teacher at the University of Freiburg
Fields of Scholarship
Family Law
Private International Law
Comparative Law
Unification of the Law
Competition Law
Honours and Awards
2012 Board of German Jurists Association
2011 American Law Institute
2010 Deutscher Rat für Internationales Privatrecht
2010 - 2013 Research project ‚Die Europäische Ehe - Konsensuale und alternative Konfliktlösungen für transnationale Partnerschaften’ sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft with appr. 300 000 €
2007 - 2009 Research project ‚Die Europäische Ehe - Ein optionales Instrument im Europäischen Familienrecht’,
sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft with appr. 300 000 €
2008 Offer of the chair for German Law at the University of Lausanne
2000 Offer of the chair for Civil Law at the University of Hamburg
1996 - 1999 Scholarship for Habilitation by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
1983- 1984 Scholarship of the Fulbright Commission
1978 - 1979 Scholarship of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst