Professor Christian von Bar, Ph.D., Ph.D. (honoris causa), FBA, MAE

About the person

University professor in Osnabrück from April 1, 1981, to September 30, 2020. Member of the Executive Board of the Institute for European Law (1985–2003). Founder and Director of the Institute for Private International Law and Comparative Law (1987 to 2003) and of the European Legal Studies Institute (ELSI) (2003 to 2020).

Head of the Study Group on a European Civil Code from 1999 to 2009; one of the spokespersons for the “Common Principles of European Contract Law (CoPECL)” network of excellence under the EU’s Sixth Framework Program for Research from 2005 to 2009; Member of the Commission on European Contract Law from 1992 to 2000; advisory member of the UNIDROIT Working Group on the Law of International Commercial Contracts from 2005 to 2010.

Head of an international research group on Common European Tort Law 1992–1998. Head of a publication project on the history of German private international law 1989–2001. Head of an international research group on Common European Law of Agency without Authority and Unjust Enrichment 1999–2009. Co-editor of the Draft Common Frame of Reference in 2008 and 2009. Head of the Common European Law of Property project from 2010 to 2018. Head of the Common European Law of Persons project since 2019.

Special Advisor to European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding on strategic issues for developing the European area of Justice and Fundamental Rights, 2010–2015. Member of the Council of the European Law Institute, 2011–2020. Chair of the Legal Sciences Committee of the German Research Foundation (previously and concurrently serving as an expert reviewer for international and foreign private law) 1996–2000; expert reviewer for, among others, the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European Research Council, the German Jurists’ Congress, the German Traffic Law Congress, the Volkswagen Foundation, the Thyssen Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Austrian Science Fund, the Swiss National Science Foundation, for Dutch, Polish, Scottish, and South African universities, the European University Institute in Florence, the National Research Foundation of South Africa, and the DAAD. Numerous expert opinions on foreign law for German courts. Member of the Commission for the Development of the Law Faculty at the University of Greifswald. Chairman of the Osnabrück-Emsland Legal Studies Society, 1993–1997. Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the University Press of Osnabrück.

Editor of three series of publications. Editor for Staudinger’s Commentary on the Civil Code. Member of the international scientific advisory board of Il Foro Padano, Gemeinschaftsprivatrecht (GPR), Europa e diritto privato, the European Review of Private Law (ERPL), the Comparative Law Journal of Southern Africa (CILSA), Aansprakelijkheid & Verzekering, Juridica and Juridica International (Tartu), and the Romanian Private International and Comparative Law Review.

Approximately 410 book and article publications in Belgium, China, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Korea, Moldova, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Lectures in more than 30 countries.

Awards

• 1993 Leibniz Prize from the DFG
• 1993 Honorary Master of the Bench, Gray’s Inn, London
• 2000 Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy
• 2003 Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Leuven
• 2003 Corresponding Member of the Académie internationale de droit comparé
• 2006 Lower Saxony State Prize
• 2007 Linnaeus Honorary Doctorate, Uppsala University
• 2007 Honorary Doctor of Law, University of Tartu
• 2010 Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Helsinki
• 2011 Gold Medal of Merit from the University of Silesia in Katowice
• 2011 Honorary Professor at the University of Częstochowa
• 2012 Honorary Doctor of Law, University of Silesia in Katowice
• 2013 Honorary Doctor of Philosophy, University of Warmia and Mazury
• 2016 Honorary Doctor of Law, University of Novi Sad
• 2017 Member of the Academia Europaea
• 2018 Federal Cross of Merit, 1st Class

Key Areas of Research

• Civil Law
• Private International Law
• Private law of the EU Member States and the United Kingdom