Silja Vöneky (born September 3, 1969) is a German
jurist
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...
, specializing in
international law
International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...
and
philosophy of law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
. She is a
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
of
public law
Public law is the part of law that governs relations and affairs between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that ...
, international law, and ethics of law at the
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...
.
Life
She studied law and philosophy of law at the University of Freiburg, the
University of Bonn
The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...
, the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
, and the
University of Heidelberg
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...
, completing her judicial clerkship (Referendariat) at the
Kammergericht
The Kammergericht (KG) is the , the highest state court, for the city-state of Berlin, Germany. As an ordinary court according to the German Courts Constitution Act (''Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz''), it deals with criminal and civil cases, super ...
in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. Thereafter, Vöneky wrote her
dissertation on environmental protection in armed conflicts at the
in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...
under
Rüdiger Wolfrum
Rüdiger Wolfrum (born 13 December 1941 in Berlin) is a German jurist and the current professor of international law at the Heidelberg University Faculty of Law and director emeritus of the Heidelberg Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public La ...
. There she was head of the independent Max Planck research group on the "Democratic Legitimacy of Ethical Decisions". In the framework of this research, she coined the concept 'ethicalization of the law'. In 2009, she completed her habilitation at the University of Heidelberg with a work on law, morality, ethics, and issues of democratic legitimation.
In 2012, she was appointed to a four-year term as a member of the German Ethics Council on the proposal of the German Federal Government and was head of the Council's working group on biosecurity, which – at the request of the German Federal Ministries of Research and of Health – issued a report on the freedom and responsibility of research with respect to biosecurity that attracted international interest. In addition, she is a founding member of the
Cambridge Working Group.
Since 2001 Silja Vöneky is legal advisor to the German Federal Foreign Office concerning the Arctic and Antarctic, member of the German Delegation to the ATCMs (Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings), and she prepared the German Draft Law for the Implementation of the Liability Annex to the
Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty
The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, also known as the Madrid Protocol, is a complementary legal instrument to the Antarctic Treaty signed in Madrid on 4 October 1991. It entered into force on 14 January 1998.
The Mad ...
for the German Ministry of Environment. In the 2015-2016
academic year
An academic year, or school year, is a period that schools, colleges and university, universities use to measure the duration of studies for a given educational level. Academic years are often divided into academic terms. Students attend classe ...
, Silja Vöneky is a
visiting fellow
In academia
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of ...
at the Human Rights Programme at Harvard Law School and is conducting research on the topic "Human Rights and Governance of Existential Risks" in connection with "Human Rights, Legitimacy, and Democracy in the 21st Century". Silja Vöneky will continue her work on questions of risk governance on the basis of international law during the winter semester 2018 for one year as a Fellow of the 2018-2019
FRIAS Research Group on Responsible Artificial Intelligence (Emerging ethical, legal, philosophical and social aspects of the interaction between humans and autonomous intelligent systems).
Representative writings in English
* ''Security Interests, Human Rights, and Espionage in the Second Machine Age – NSA Mass Surveillance and the Framework of Public International Law''
FIP 3/2015
* ''Biosecurity – Freedom, Responsibility, and Legitimacy of Research'', in Ordnung der Wissenschaft 2/2015, available at: http://www.ordnungderwissenschaft.de/
* ''Foundations and Limits of an Ethicalization of Law'', in F. Battaglia, N. Mukerji, J. Nida-Rümelin (eds.), Rethinking Responsibility in Science and Technology, 2014, pp. 183–202
* ''Implementation and Enforcement of International Humanitarian Law'', Chapter 14, in D. Fleck (ed.), The Handbook of International Humanitarian Law, 3. Edition, 2013, pp. 647–700
* ''Francis Lieber (1798-1872)'', in B. Fassbender, A. Peters, S. Peter (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law, 2012, pp. 1137–1141
* ''The Fight against Terrorism and the Rules of International Law - Comment on Papers and Speeches of John B. Bellinger, Chief Legal Advisor to the United States Department'', in R. A. Miller (ed.), Comparative Law as Transnational Law, A Decade of the German Law Journal, Oxford 2012, pp. 353–362.
* ''Analogy in International Law'', in R. Wolfrum (ed.), Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Vol. I, 2012, pp. 374–380, available at: http://www.mpepil.com
* ''Antarctica'', in R. Wolfrum (ed.), Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Vol. I, 2012, pp. 418–435 (together with S. Addison-Agyei), available at: http://www.mpepil.com
* ''Environment, Protection in Armed Conflict'', in R. Wolfrum (ed.), Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Vol. III, 2012, pp. 509–518 (together with R. Wolfrum), available at: http://www.mpepil.com
* ''The Liability Annex to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty'', in D. König/ P.-T. Stoll/ V. Röben/ N. Matz-Lück (eds.), International Law Today: New Challenges and the Need for Reform?, Heidelberg 2008, pp. 165–197.
References
External links
Website of Silja Vöneky at the University of FreiburgSilja Vöneky on TwitterProfile of Silja Vöneky on AcademiaNet a database on German and European women academics and scientists
Profile of Silja Vöneky at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program
{{DEFAULTSORT:Voneky, Silja
1969 births
Living people
German jurists
Academic staff of the University of Freiburg
Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law people