Prof. Dr. Christoph Möllers is Professor of Public Law and Juresprudence at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He studied law, philosophy and comparative literature in Tübingen, Madrid and Munich. He then completed his PhD in law in Munich and worked as Assistant Professor in Dresden and Heidelberg. Christoph Möllers habilitated in Public Law, Philosophy of Law, European and International Law at the University of Heidelberg. Since 2004, he has held professorships in Münster and Göttingen. Since 2007, he has been a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. Since 2009, he teaches at the Humboldt University of Berlin. From 2011 to 2014, Christoph Möllers was a part-time judge at the Higher Administrative Court Berlin-Brandenburg as well as a court representative before the Federal Constitutional Court, among others for the German Bundestag, Bundesrat and Federal Government. He is a Permanent Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.


Publications (Selection)

2020 | Freiheitsgrade, Suhrkamp  
2019 | Das Grundgesetz. Geschichte und Inhalt, 2. Aufl., Beck
2018 | Demokratiesicherung in der Europäischen Union, (gem. mit Linda Schneider), Mohr Siebeck
2015 | Die Möglichkeit der Normen, Suhrkamp
2013 | The Three Branches, Oxford Univ. Press
2012 | Demokratie – Zumutungen und Versprechen, 3. Aufl., Wagenbach
2011 | Staat als Argument, 2. Aufl., Morh Siebeck
2010 | Der vermisste Leviathan, 2. Aufl., Suhrkamp

Awards (Selection)

2019 | Schader-Preis
2016 | Leibniz-Preis der DFG
2005/2015 | Juristisches Buch des Jahres

Project Description

The legitimacy of public powers: The connection of morality, law and politics

During their stay at Thomas Mann House, Christoph Möllers together with Rainer Forst and Michael Zürn aim to describe the profound conflicts that characterize current societies and international institutions — keywords are populism, nationalism and authoritarianism — to take the opportunity to fundamentally think about the legitimacy of normative orders in the state or supranational space. In the project, "The legitimacy of public powers: The connection of morality, law and politics," the three scholars want to combine their different fields of expertise to research which standards of justification are normatively appropriate and empirically practicable for which type of institutional order — and according to which standards this is measured.