GLJ New Editors-in-Chief: Emanuel V. Towfigh
Introducing the Second of Four New GLJ Editors-in-Chief:
Emanuel V. Towfigh
Several veterans of the German Law Journal’s editorial board have joined Russell Miller (one of the journal’s co-founders and its long-serving editor) as part of a panel of Chief Editors. This exciting development signals the Journal’s continuing dynamism and growth. In the coming issues the new EICs will introduce themselves and offer remarks on their vision for the Journal. We continue this series with the introduction of Emanuel V. Towfigh (Chair in Public Law, Empirical Legal Research, and Law & Economics EBS University Law School).
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It is my great honor and pleasure to introduce myself to you as another of the new Editors-in-Chief, joining Russell Miller, Jule Mulder, Matthias Goldmann, and Floris de Witte (Floris’ introductory text is next in this series).
When Russ asked me whether I would want to get involved with the Journal, and later whether I would be willing to join the Editor-in-Chief panel, I did not hesitate even for a moment. In my view the German Law Journal is one of the most exciting (and thriving) academic projects I have come across. Being involved with it has been one of the most rewarding academic experiences, not the least because the GLJ team (including editorial board members, student editors, and academic advisors) is one of the most enthusiastic, dedicated, and colorful crowds I have had the pleasure of working with. Our debates get straight down to the nitty-gritty and are as lively as they are respectful of diverse views. And finally: Who would not want to work with Russ – at the same time an outstanding scholar, a humble and compassionate friend, an inspiring example for the rest of us!
As to my own research, I hold a Chair in Public Law, Empirical Legal Research and Law & Economics at EBS Law School in Wiesbaden/Germany. Before that, I was a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn, a Global Research Scholar and Hauser Scholar at New York University and a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, the universities of Göttingen and Münster, and at Humboldt University in Berlin. My research focuses on governance, spanning constitutional law, the law of democracy and political parties, municipal law, law & religion, and private corporations. In terms of method, I try to combine doctrinal arguments with insights from the social sciences, particularly employing empirical methods to better understand the mechanics of the law and its effects on human behavior.
What is my aspiration for the work at the German Law Journal? In my view, the Journal does a great — and in this day and age: indispensable — job in bringing together innovative research on the most pressing challenges our societies face globally. In regular as well as special issues, our authors enrich the discourse of legal scholarship by broadening and challenging one’s own perspective with view to topics, methods and approaches. In this regard, even if the texts are not all comparative in the strict sense, the Journal’s objective is to provide a blend of manifold takes on a magnitude of subjects that are of interest to a diverse and curious readership that is involved in a discourse on law that transgresses national boundaries, conventional intra-disciplinary frontiers, and idées reçues. Moreover, the Journal provides a visible platform to young, “up-and-coming” scholars in these fields. I would hope to contribute to fostering and expanding all these qualities, and to broadening the scope of the content covered by the Journal in all dimensions — with view to subject-matter, method, and authorship. Above all, I wish that you, our cherished readers, would join us in this effort, in order to make the Journal the very first place you turn when feeling that insatiable urge to engage with stimulating ideas. On a more practical note, I will help keep the mundane technical basis for the Journal up-to-date functioning well.
We have exciting developments on the horizon. Especially in these are turbulent times, I am grateful to be part of this project.
Please stay well-disposed toward the German Law Journal!
