Susanne Baer

Summary

Susanne Baer, FBA (born 16 February 1964) is a German legal scholar and one of the 16 judges of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. Baer has been the William W. Cook Global Law Professor at the University of Michigan Law School since winter 2010 and is also a professor of public law and gender studies with the law faculty at Humboldt University of Berlin and its dean of academic affairs.

Susanne Baer
Baer in 2010
Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
Assumed office
2 February 2011
Nominated byThe Greens
Preceded byBrun-Otto Bryde
Personal details
Born (1964-02-16) 16 February 1964 (age 60)
Saarbrücken, West Germany
Alma materFree University of Berlin
University of Michigan Law School
Goethe University Frankfurt

Early life and education edit

Baer was born in Saarbrücken, Saarland on 16 February 1964. From 1983 to 1988, Baer studied German law and political science at the Free University of Berlin. She received her LL.M. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1993.[1]

Career edit

With a scholarship by the Hans Böckler Foundation between 1993 and 1995, Baer wrote her doctoral thesis "Dignity or equality: The appropriate fundamental-rights concept of anti-discrimination law – a comparison of the approach to sexual harassment in the workplace in the Federal Republic of Germany and the U.S." at the Goethe University Frankfurt,[2] for which she received the Walter Kolb Memorial Award of the City of Frankfurt am Main.

Baer was visiting professor of public law at the universities of Bielefeld in 2001/02 and Erfurt in 2001.[3]

In 2002, Baer declined the offer of a professorship at the University of Bielefeld but soon after was appointed university professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin.[2] In 2005/2006, she served as vice president for academic and international affairs at Humboldt University and as director of its Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies and GenderCompetenceCentre (2003–2010).[1][4]

Baer's research areas include socio-cultural legal studies, gender studies, law against discrimination, and comparative constitutional law.[5]

Judge of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, 2011–2023 edit

Baer has been a judge of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany since February 2011, when she was elected to the Court by a committee of the German Parliament for a 12-year term upon nomination by The Greens. She is the second judge of the Federal Constitutional Court to be elected on the proposal of the Greens; Brun-Otto Bryde was the first. Baer is the first lesbian to serve on the Federal Constitutional Court. She is in a civil union.[6][7]

In a unanimous 2014 decision by the eight-judge First Senate on abolishing a law allowing companies to be passed from generation to generation tax free, Baer – alongside fellow members Reinhard Gaier and Johannes Masing – issued a supplementary decision saying the judgment should have included wording to ensure that revised tax rules did not undercut the basic purpose of inheritance law, which was to hinder excessive concentration of wealth among a privileged few: "The inheritance tax serves not only to generate tax revenue. Rather it is also an instrument of the state to hinder disproportionate accumulation of wealth from generation to generation solely as a result of origin or personal connection."[8]

In 2015, Baer was one of the judges who overturned the ban on the wearing of hijabs in German classrooms, arguing that a general prohibition, incumbent on teachers in state schools, of expressing religious beliefs by outer appearance, is not compatible with their freedom of faith and their freedom to profess a belief.[9]

On the initiative of president Andreas Voßkuhle, Baer was among four justices who were mandated in 2016 to draft a revised code of conduct, which set out rules for the justices' public appearances, gifts, secondary income and other aspects.[10]

Works edit

  • Comparative Constitutionalism: Cases and Materials (together with Norman Dorsen, Michel Rosenfeld, András Sajó), St. Paul 2010

Other activities edit

Recognition edit

In July 2017, Baer was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.[13]

References edit

  1. ^ a b "University of Michigan Law School". web.law.umich.edu. Archived from the original on 5 June 2010.
  2. ^ a b Erster Senat: ßSusanne Baer Bundesverfassungsgericht.
  3. ^ "Susanne Baer, Professor of Public Law and Gender Studies, LL.M." University of Zurich, Law Summer School (LSS) Cairo 2008. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  4. ^ "Öffentliches Recht und Geschlechterstudien: Prof. Dr. Susanne Baer, LL.M. (Michigan) – Prof. Dr. Susanne Baer". www.rewi.hu-berlin.de. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  5. ^ "Susanne Baer, L. Bates Lea Global Law Professor". University of Michigan School of Law. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  6. ^ Website of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany Archived 2 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "Out Lesbian Elected to Germany's Highest Court". 14 November 2010.
  8. ^ Ewing, Jack (17 December 2014). "German Court Strikes Down Law Allowing Companies to Be Inherited Tax-Free". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  9. ^ "A general ban on headscarves for teachers at state schools is not compatible with the Constitution". Bundesverfassungsgericht (press release). 13 March 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  10. ^ Christian Rath (5 January 2018). "Karlsruher Ethik-Code: Benimm-Regeln für die BVR". Legal Tribune Online (in German). Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  11. ^ "Board of Trustees". Stiftung Forum Recht. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  12. ^ Board of Trustees
  13. ^ "Elections to the British Academy celebrate the diversity of UK research". British Academy. 2 July 2017. Retrieved 29 July 2017.

External links edit

  • Official profile from the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (in German)
  • Official profile from Humboldt University of Berlin
  • Official profile from the University of Michigan Law School