Birke Häcker (born 1977) is a German

legal scholar Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

. Since January 2023 she has been Professor for Civil Law, Common Law and Comparative Law at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

and Director of the Institute for International Private Law and Comparative Law at the

. From 2016 to 2022, she was the Professor of Comparative Law at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and a

Professorial Fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mi ...

Early life and education

Häcker was born in 1977.'HÄCKER, Prof. Birke',

Who's Who 2017 ''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It is a book, and also a CD-ROM and a website, giving information on influential people from around the world. Published annually as a book since 1849, it lists people who influence British life, according to i ...

, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2017; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2016; online edn, Nov 201
accessed 19 June 2017
/ref> She studied law at

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

(BA) degree in 2001. She then studied at the

, where she completed a

Diplom-Jurist {{Unreferenced, date=June 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) Diplom-Jurist (Dipl.-Jur.) is a master's-level law degree awarded by some German universities. Background Historically, German law students did not receive any academic degree upon completion ...

(Dipl-Jur) degree in 2004. That year, she also sat and passed the 1st German State Examination in Law. Having returned to Oxford, she completed her

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

(DPhil) degree in 2007. Her

doctoral thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

was titled "Consequences of Impaired Consent Transfers: A Structural Comparison of English and German Law". She sat and passed the 2nd German State Examination in Law in 2011.

Academic career

From 2001 to 2008, Häcker held an elected Examination Fellowship of

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

. From 2008 to 2016, she was a

research associate Research associates are researchers (scholars and professionals) that usually have an advanced degree beyond a Master's degree. In some universities/research institutes, such as Harvard/Harvard Medical School/Harvard School of Public Health, the ...

and then

lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

in law at

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

in Germany. She was also a

Senior Research Fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for Academic rank, academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the super ...

at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance in Munich, and a Fifty-Pound Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, between 2011 and 2016. In December 2015, it was announced that Häcker would be the next

Linklaters Professor of Comparative Law The Professorship of Comparative Law is a chair in law at the University of Oxford. The current holder of the chair is Birke Häcker. The chair was founded as the Professorship of Comparative Law in 1948 and was the first chair of comparative l ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in succession to Stefan Vogenauer. She took up the appointment on 1 September 2016. She was additionally so elected a

in law at

in 2016. Linklaters Professorship of Comparative Law reverted to the name Professor of Comparative Law at the start of 2018 because

Linklaters Linklaters LLP is a multinational law firm, headquartered in London, England. Founded in 1838, it is a member of the "Magic Circle" of elite London-headquartered law firms. It currently employs over 5,000 lawyers across 31 offices in 21 count ...

' funding of the chair had come to an end.

Personal life

Häcker is married to Tobias Reker. Together they have one daughter.

Selected works

* * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Häcker, Birke 1977 births Living people German legal scholars Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford Linklaters Professors of Comparative Law Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford University of Bonn alumni Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Scholars of comparative law Women jurists Women legal scholars