Chairholder

Prof. Dr. iur. Dr. h. c. Mathias Rohe, M. A., RiOLG a. D.

 

Key Areas of Academic Work:

  • Legal status of Islam in Germany and Europe and its development in an European context
  • Islamic law, especially its development in present day
  • Multicultural conflicts and intercultural communication
  • German and international banking and credit security law
  • Legal position concerning complex contractual relationships
  • German and international liability law

Publications

List of Publications (PDF Download)

Memberships and positions held:

  1. Academic
    • Member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, since 2018
    • Founding director of the FAU Erlangen Center for Islam and the Law in Europe (EZIRE)
    • Director of the Research Centre for Religious Diversity
    • Vice-President of the board of trustees of the Near and Middle East Association (NuMOV – Nah- und Mittelostverein)
    • Consultative Commitee of the Department ‚Law and Anthropology‘ at Max-Planck-Institute for Social Anthropology Halle
    • Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Avicenna Foundation
    • Scientific Advisory Board of the Forum Islamic-Theological Studies
    • Member of the Advisory Board of the Documentation Center for Religious reasoned Extremism (Political Islam), Federal Government, Vienna
    • Co-founder, and from 2001-2009 President and until 2023 board member of the Society for Arabic and Islamic Law (GAIR –  Gesellschaft für arabisches und islamisches Recht )
    • Board of trustees of the Eugen-Biser-Foundation Munich
    • Board of trustees of the Islamkolleg Deutschland e.V.
    • Advisory Board of the Muslim Education Center of Bavaria (registered association) (Muslimisches Bildungswerk Bayern e. V.)
    • Associate editor, Annotated Legal Documents on Islam in Europe
    • Advisory Board, International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) Malaysia
    • Advisory Board, Journal of Law, University of Kuwait
    • Advisory Board, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion
    • Associate Member, International Academy of Comparative Law
    • Member of the Independent Expert Group on Muslimophobia (Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Building and Homeland, Berlin), 2020-2023
    • From the 1st of October 2019 Dean of Research of the Law Faculty
    • Executive Director of the advisory board of the Department for Islamic-Religious Studies (Special Representative of the President) (Department für islamisch-religiöse Studien, DIRS)
    • Chairman of the Library Comittee of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Bibliotheksausschuss der FAU)
    • Chairman of the Board of the Dr.-Alfred-Vinzl-Foundation at the University Erlangen-Nuremberg
    • German-Turkish Lawyers‘ Association (DTJV – Deutsch-Türkische Juristenvereinigung)
    • Civil Law Teachers‘ Association (Zivilrechtslehrervereinigung)
    • Banking Law Association – Academic Society for Banking Law (Bankrechtliche Vereinigung – Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Bankrecht)
    • Comparative Law Society (Gesellschaft für Rechtsvergleichung)
    • Academic Association for International Procedural Law (Wissenschaftliche Vereinigung für Internationales Verfahrensrecht)
    • German Association of University Professors and Lecturers (DHV – Deutscher Hochschulverband)
    • Deputy Chairman of the Legal Society of Middle Franconia in Nuremberg (until 2015)
    • Treasurer of the Supporting Association for Family and Academia at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (Schatzmeister des Fördervereins Familie und Wissenschaft e.V.) – from its formation in 2005 until its dissolution in 2019
  2. Miscellaneous

Curriculum Vitae

12.10.1959 Born in Stuttgart
1978 General qualification for university entrance (Abitur) at the Wirtemberg-Gymnasium Stuttgart-Untertürkheim; Scheffel Award for the best performance in German; Scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes)
1978 – 1979 Worked as a cook in Saudi Arabia and for the delivery service of the German Federal Post Office (Deutsche Bundespost), Stays in various oriental countries
1979 – 1981 Mandatory civilian service (in place of military service) at the Protestant Family Vacation Resort at Gomadingen
1981 – 1988 Study of law at Tübingen, First State Exam
1981 – 1989 Islamic Studies at Tübingen and Damascus (1984-85); Master´s Degree with a thesis on classical Islamic law (Dealing with theft according to the four schools)
1988 – 1993 Assistant to Prof. Dr. Dietrich Rothoeft/University of Tübingen
1989 – 1992 Practical legal training in Tübingen; Second State Exam
1990 – 1995 Taught courses in German law for foreign lawyers in cooperation with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Ministry of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia
1993 Doctorate (Dr.jur.) with a dissertation on private international law (on the application of lex loci delicti); Awarded the Reinhold-und-Maria-Teufel Foundation sponsorship prize
1993 – 1997 Assistant to Prof. Dr. Wernhard Möschel/University of Tübingen
February 1997 Habilitation in the subjects civil law, private international law and procedure, comparative law and European law; habilitation thesis on complex contractual relationships (Netzverträge – Rechtsprobleme komplexer Vertragsverbindungen)
Summer 1997 Acting professor with chairs in Augsburg and Potsdam
September 1997 Offer from the chair of Private Law, Private International Law and Comparative Law at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg ibidem
July 1999 Offer from the chair of Private Law, Private International Law and Comparative Law at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg ibidem
2001 – 2007 Judge at the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) Nuremberg
October 2004 Rejection of an offer for the Chair of Private Law, Private International Law and Comparative Law at the University of Tübingen
2004 – 2006 Dean of the Faculty of Law in Erlangen
2006 – 2009 Contributor to the German Islam Conference (Department of the Interior), in all phases since preparation
2008 – Founding director of the FAU Erlangen Centre for Islam and the Law in Europe
2010 – Project group member of the Second Islam Conference
2011 Conferment of the Karl-Steinbauer-Zeichens of the Bavarian Parishbrotherhood for christian courage
2011 – 2013 Leader of the working group „Paralleljustiz“ of the Bavarian State Ministry of Justice
2012 – 2013 Leader of the working group on „Islamism and Islamophobia“ organized by the Austrian State Secretary for Integration („Dialogforum Islam“)
2014 – Associate Member, International Academy of Comparative Law
2018 Elected ordinary member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
2018 Degree of honorary doctor, awarded by the University of Ankara, as suggested by the Law Faculty, first honorary doctorate awarded by the Law Faculty since its foundation in 1927.
2018 Laureate of the WGIT Award 2020 of the Scientific Society for Islamic Theology
1990 – Publications in the fields of civil law, private international law, comparative law, European law, civil procedure, Islamic law and publications dealing with legal questions relating to Islam (see separate list)
1997 – Extensive activity as an expert in parliaments as well as courts and as a consultant for the domestic and foreign governments; Hundreds of interviews for German and international media
1991 – Various invitations to hold lectures on legal and Islamic topics (among others in Montreal, Ottawa, Yale, Harvard, Washington DC, St. Louis, Denver, Provo, Berkeley, Oxford, London, Leicester, Coventry, Cardiff, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Gothenburg, Bergen, Leiden, Utrecht, Nijmegen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Leuven, Ghent, Paris, Rennes, Strasbourg, Zurich, Bern, Salzburg, Vienna, Graz, Turin, Milan, Venice, Florence, Braga, Krakow, Budapest, Tartu, Minsk, Moscow, Kazan, St. Petersburg, Rabat, Fes, Casablanca, Cairo, Tripoli, Istanbul, Ankara, Kayseri, Malatya, Beirut, Jerusalem, Damascus, Amman, Kabul, Dushanbe, Bishkek, Lahore, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo, Kyoto, Kobe as well as in more than 100 cities in Germany)
1975 – Stays in the following oriental countries: Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, UAE, Iran, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, India, Malaysia

Family

Mathias Rohe has been married since 1983 and has two daughters.