On June 27, 2019, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) elected Anja Seibert-Fohr, LLM '00, SJD '04, as judge of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in respect of Germany. She currently holds the Hengstberger Professorship for Basic and Future Issues of the Rule of Law at Heidelberg University.
Professor Seibert-Fohr received a relative majority of votes and will commence a nine-year term on ECHR on January 1, 2020.
An internationally renowned expert in public international law and human rights, Professor Seibert-Fohr was initially elected to the UN Human Rights Committee as a member in 2013 and later served as vice chair. The committee monitored state parties’ implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
About her election to the UN Human Rights Committee, Professor Seibert-Fohr said, “It all started with Thomas Buergenthal and GW Law."
Lobingier Professor Emeritus of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence Thomas Buergenthal, who has a long career in international human rights law, worked with Professor Seibert-Fohr when she was a student at GW Law.
"Professor Seibert-Fohr's election as judge to the European Court of Human Rights is a testament to her professional accomplishments and personal character," Professor Buergenthal said. "Having served as her dissertation adviser while she worked on her SJD degree at GW Law, her latest honor comes as no surprise. I know that she will prove to be an outstanding judge on this highly respected Court."
Professor Seibert-Fohr is also the director of Heidelberg University’s Institute for Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, and Philosophy of Law and the Hengstberger Chair for Public Law, International Law, and Human Rights Law.
At Heidelberg University, she devotes herself to the current challenges in research and teaching that have arisen due to the increasing internationalization of our world in order to be bound by law and order. Her current research focuses on international human rights law, international dispute settlement, rule of law development, constitutional law, and comparative law.