Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law

The IMPRS will concentrate on the question which conditions must be present to successfully resolve disputes at the international level. This notably includes proceedings before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the international criminal courts. Additionally, international arbitration is covered, especially with respect to investment disputes, commercial arbitration and arbitration for sport, as well as disputes before WTO adjudicatory bodies. The treatment of State insolvency and alternative dispute resolution methods will also be examined.

The main idea is that comparing different institutions, based on public international law as well as on international economic and criminal law, leads to new insights into the suitability of institutions and the procedures to achieve effective conflict resolution. Coordinating research projects of doctoral candidates and professors should open an interdisciplinary perspective previously unknown to legal science due to the strict separation between private international law, public international law and international criminal law. Research topics should have an international, comparative and interdisciplinary approach. The research school is open to doctoral candidates in the fields of law, political sciences, sociology and psychology.

The International Max Planck Research School is affiliated with the already existing post-graduate school on “Successful Dispute Resolution” instituted offered at the Law Faculty of the University of Heidelberg. Both are supported by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, and the Institute of Comparative and International Private and Economic Law, at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg.

Advisory committee:

- Prof. Dr. Hélène Ruiz Fabri; Dean of the Sorbonne Law School

- Prof. Alexis Mourre; Vice-president of the ICC International Court of Arbitration

- Prof. Dr. Allan Rosas; Judge of the European Court of Justice

- Prof. Dr. Christoph Schreuer, Chairman of the Committee on International Law on Foreign Investment of the ILA

- Prof. Dr. Mark Villiger; Judge of the European Court of Human Rights

- Prof. Dr. Andreas Vosskuhle; President of the Bundesverfassungsgericht

- Sir Michael Wood; Barrister, London; Member of the UN International Law Commission

Additional positions are available starting January 2011.
Please use the updated forms for your application.

Any inquiries should be addresed to the coordinator of the IMPRS, Mr. Marcus Mack (mmack@mpil.de).