Rudolf Geiger

Rudolf H. Geiger
Professor of Law (emeritus)

Academic degrees

1963 Dr. iur., University of Munich
1978 Dr. iur. habil., University of Munich

Professional career

1965-1968 Prosecuting attorney, Office of the Public Prosecutor in Munich
In charge of prosecuting, bringing to court and pleading in jury trials against persons suspected of Nazi crimes mainly in German occupied Poland.

1968-1983 Judge at the court of first instance (Amtsgericht) for the district of Munich (applying federal and state law)

In 1981 supervising of pre-trial discovery in Corning Glass Works v. I.T.T. based on a request for judicial assistance by the U.S. District Court at West Virginia, in the presence of Chief District Court Judge Turk. This was probably the first major instance of such depositions in Germany on the basis of the Hague Convention on the Taking of Evidence Abroad (1970), breaking new ground in quite a few legally controversial areas in U.S./German relations. In 1985 I made a presentation of the proceedings in a symposium held at Ottawa upon the invitation of the Canadian Ministry of Justice.

1983-1993 Judge at the Court of Appeal (Oberlandesgericht) for the Southern District of Bavaria (applying federal and state law), Chamber of Civil and Commercial Cases

Our panel, sitting with three judges, was competent to trying all cases where the defendant firm or company had its seat in Munich or where the venue of the Munich courts had been stipulated by the parties.

1978-1993 Professor of Law at the University of Munich

Concurrently to serving as a judge I was a professor of law at the University of Munich, teaching constitutional law in its relation to Public International Law, and European Union law.

1993-2003 Professor of Law at the University of Leipzig

In 1993 I was asked to assist in restructuring the law faculty of the University of Leipzig (former East Germany). There I founded, and became Director of, the Institute of Public International Law, European Law and Public Foreign Law, teaching these subjects as well as constitutional law. I also instituted a new course leading to a Master’s degree on the Law of European Integration. As Dean I instituted an exchange program with the University of Miami Law School.

2003 – Retired from active duty
as in Germany this is demanded by law at the age of 65. However, I still have the right to teach and to take part in university examinations.

Lecturing abroad:

– at the University of Arizona (Seminar on European Union Law in 1997),

– at the University of Miami (common seminar in Leipzig and Miami on international and comparative law issues every year since 2001),

– an 80 hours course on public international law for government (mainly foreign service) officials at Pnom Penh (Cambodia) in 2003, and

– a Master’s course on international human rights and state immunity at the University of Bologna International Summer School in 2002 and 2003, where I belonged to the steering committee.

Publications:

Recent publications among the numerous books and articles are

– a book on “German Constitution and Public International Law” (6th ed. 2013),
– an article-by-article commentary on the European Union Treaties (in German: 5th ed. 2004; in English: 2015).

I am a co-author of

– a commentary on “The Charter of the United Nations” (Bruno Simma, ed., Oxford University Press, 2nd ed.)

– the Encyclopedia on Public International Law (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed.), where I wrote the articles on International Judicial Assistance and on the Kashmir question and of

– Geiger/Khan/Kotzur, European Union Treaties. A Commentary, C.H.Beck.Hart Publishing, 2015..

Side Project:

Ever since I was a high school senior in the U.S.A. back in 1954/55 (U.S. students exchange program) I was impressed by the story of Carl Schurz, a German student participating in the (unsuccessful) German democratic revolution in 1848, who emigrated to the United States and in a long political career finally even became a member of the U.S. Government. I wrote his biography, with a second thought of contributing to a better German-American understanding.