Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Prof. Dr. Florian Jeßberger

About | Prof. Florian Jeßberger

Foto Jeßberger

 

Florian Jeßberger is Professor of Law at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where he holds the Chair in Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, International Criminal Law, and Modern Legal History. He also serves as the Director Director of the Franz von Liszt Institute for International Criminal Justice.

His research centers on German, comparative and international criminal law, modern history of criminal law, and human rights. His works have frequently been cited by courts and tribunals, including the International Criminal Court, the (German) Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice. He regularly gives advice to the German Federal Government, the Federal Parliament and civil society organisations.

A co-editor of the Journal of International Criminal Justice (Oxford University Press) and a member of the Advisory Board of the South African Journal of Criminal Justice (Juta) Florian Jeßberger authored or co-authored several books, the most recent of which is ‚Principles of International Criminal Law’ (4th ed. Oxford University Press 2020, with Gerhard Werle), which has been translated into various languages (Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Russian). The books he has edited or co-edited include the five-volume ‚International Criminal Law’ (Routledge 2017, with Antonio Cassese & Robert Cryer), ‚Why Punish Perpetrators of Mass Atrocities? Purposes of Punishment in International Law‘ (Cambridge University Press 2020, with Julia Geneuss), ‚Histories of Transnational Criminal Law’ (Oxford University Press 2021, with Neil Boister & Sabine Gless), ‚International Criminal Law – A Counter-Hegemonic Project?‘ (Springer 2022, with Leonie Steinl & Kalika Mehta), and several special issues or symposia in peer reviewed journals.

Florian Jeßberger is a co-principal investigator of the Minerva Center for the Study of the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions at the University of Haifa, serves on the Advisory Boards of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin and the Center for European Legal Studies on Macro-Crimes in Ferrara. He chairs the steering committee of the Arbeitskreis Völkerstrafrecht, the association of German speaking academics and practitioners with an interest in international criminal justice. He is a member of the University Senate of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, a Vice Academic Director of the Oxford Berlin Research Partnership and the Berlin co-ordinator of the double degree in law (LL.B. in English Law and German Law) jointly offered by King’s College London and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Florian Jeßberger studied law as well as political sciences and received his PhD in law from Universität zu Köln with a dissertation on sentencing in Germany and the United States (‚Kooperation und Strafzumessung’, Duncker & Humblot 1999). During his clerkship he was trained, inter alia, in the Criminal Law Directorate of the Federal Ministry of Justice and in the Berlin Higher Regional Court. He completed his Habilitation at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin with a thesis on the law of criminal jurisdiction and the transnational ambit of the criminal law (‚Der transnationale Geltungsbereich des deutschen Strafrechts’, Mohr Siebeck 2011).

From 2007-2010 Florian Jeßberger was the Lichtenberg Professor of International and Comparative Criminal Law at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Before returning to Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2020, he held a Chair in Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, International Criminal Law and Modern Legal History at Universität Hamburg (2010-2020), where he also served as the Dean for Research & International Affairs (2013-2020).

Florian Jeßberger was a visiting professor or scholar at several universities outside Germany, including Columbia University (2023); the University of Haifa (2022); the University of Oxford (2018; Jesus College); the University of Ferrara (2016; Letizia Gianformaggio Chair); the China University of Political Science and Law, Bejing (2011); the University of Naples (2004-2005; Feodor Lynen Scholar of the Alexander von Humboldt- Foundation); the University of Western Cape, Capetown (2000); and the University of California, Berkeley (1996).

For a complete list of publications see here.

For a list (in German) of current doctoral theses supervised by Florian Jeßberger see here.

For more information on Florian Jeßberger's research see here.