Researching Winfried Brugger

Brugger studied law, philosophy and sociology at the Universities in Munich and Tuebingen. After completing his Ph.D. (Dr. iur.) at Tuebingen University with the prize-winning book Menschenrechtsethos und Verantwortungspolitik. Max Webers Beitrag zur Analyse und Begruendung der Menschenrechte (1980), he then studied at the University of California in Berkeley, obtaining the degree of LL.M. in 1981. Thereafter, he published comparative articles and books on German and American constitutional law and theory and the philosophy of law.

After finishing his Habilitation in Tuebingen in 1986, he became a Professor for Public Law at the University of Mannheim in 1987 and in 1992 moved on to his present position at the University of Heidelberg. His American teaching experience included visiting professorships at Georgetown University Law Center (1985, 1991–92, 1998–99, 2001, 2004, 2007), the University of Houston Law Center (1995), the University of San Francisco (2002) and the University of San Diego (2005). Winfried Brugger was also a Fellow at the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at Erfurt University in Germany, Associate Director of the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA), and President of the German Section of the International Association for Social and Legal Philosophy (IRV).

Brugger was author and editor of 17 books and wrote 220 articles and book reviews. Many of his publications focus on human rights in general and free speech issues (hate speech) in particular, judicial review, theories of interpretation, liberalism and communitarianism, constitutional law in times of emergency, and theories of good decisionmaking. In Germany, he reviewed new decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and was co-editor of the Newsletter of the German-American Lawyers Association.