Dr. Frauke Lachenmann

CV

Frauke Lachenmann received her education in English Literature, Philosophy and Law from the Universities of Heidelberg and Oxford. She passed the First and Second State Exam in Law and holds a PhD in English Literature from Heidelberg University. Following her studies, she worked as a legal adviser at the UNHCR office in Berlin before joining the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg as a Senior Researcher in 2007. In 2013-14, she was a Visiting Researcher at the Law School of Yale University, Connecticut. Upon her return to Germany, she joined the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law where she headed the Publications Department. Since 2022, she has been the Academic Coordinator of the Connecticut-Baden-Württemberg Human Rights Research Consortium (HRRC).

Selected Publications

• The Good Faith Principle in ICJ Jurisprudence (forthcoming 2023), ca. 350 pages.
• Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law (ed., together with Rainer Grote and Rüdiger Wolfrum) (OUP since 2017), available at www.mpeccol.com.
• Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law Thematic Series (ed., together with Petra Minnerop and Rüdiger Wolfrum) 3 vols (OUP  2015–19).
• Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law Volumes 18–23 (ed., together with Tilmann J Röder and Rüdiger Wolfrum) (Brill 2015–2020).
• Project “Rule of Law and Development” (multiple publications).

FRIAS Research Project

Modern constitutionalism is, on the one hand, inseparably linked to the idea of certain inalienable human and civil rights, respect for which is obligatory for any form of political rule that does not want to be considered a despotism; on the other hand, it is characterized by the idea that the political and constitutional institutions of a country are the product of its specific history and political and legal culture.

The aim of this research project is to assess whether there is a basic body of constitutional principles, rules and institutions, an acquis constitutionnel, whose existence and scope can be obtained through comparative analysis of the constitutional law of states and used as a frame of reference for the design of new constitutions. Insurmountable difficulties might stand in the way of such a project which are rooted in the different legal and political traditions of the states, the prevailing religious affinities among the population or other cultural factors which hinder an exchange of constitutional principles and rules as well as the effective implementation of impulses from international law in the areas of human rights, the rule of law, and democracy. The research project builds on debates initiated within the Connecticut-Baden Württemberg Human Rights Research Consortium and therefore pays particular attention to recent constitutional developments in the US and Germany.