Hans-Jürgen Papier (; born 6 July 1943 in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

) is a German scholar of constitutional law and was President of the

Federal Constitutional Court of Germany The Federal Constitutional Court (german: link=no, Bundesverfassungsgericht ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme constitutional court for the Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law () of Germany. Since its inc ...

from 2002 to 2010. Three years after graduating from law school in 1967 with the first law state examination, Papier completed his Ph.D. studies at the

Freie Universität Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

. In 1971 he received the second law state examination. In 1973 he received his ''

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...

'' on the basis of a second dissertation on questions concerning

German constitutional law The law of Germany (german: das Recht Deutschlands), that being the modern German legal system (german: Deutsches Rechtssystem), is a system of civil law which is founded on the principles laid out by the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Ge ...

. From 1974 onward Papier received tenure at the Universität Bielefeld and taught constitutional law. In 1992 he moved to

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

to teach German and Bavarian constitutional and administrative law as well as Public Social law at the

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: link=no, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of ...

. In 1998 Papier, a member of the conservative

CSU CSU may refer to: * Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card * Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code * Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation * Christian Social ...

party, became Vice President and Chair of the First Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. When President of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany Jutta Limbach retired from her position in 2002, Papier succeeded her. Papier has often made public comments on questions of constitutional law, but has generally avoided commenting on other political questions. He made an exception to this rule after the elections of 2005 when he implored the parties to work hard not to lose the trust of the German electorate.

Selected works

* ''Verfassung und Verfassungswandel'', in: Robertson-von Trotha, Caroline Y. (ed.): 60 Jahre Grundgesetz. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven (= Kulturwissenschaft interdisziplinär/Interdisciplinary Studies on Culture and Society, Vol. 4), Baden-Baden 2009

External links

* * 1943 births German scholars of constitutional law Living people Huguenots Justices of the Federal Constitutional Court Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany {{Germany-law-bio-stub