Jens Scherpe appointed professor at the University of Cambridge

Jens Scherpe, formerly Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, has been promoted to the position of Professor of Comparative Law at the University of Cambridge, effective 1 October 2019.

Prof. Dr. Jens Scherpe is Director of the Cambridge Family Law Centre and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College (Cambridge) as well as Cheng Yu Tung Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong and Honorary Professor at the University of Aalborg.

From 1997 to 2005 Jens Scherpe was employed at the Max Planck Institute, first as a student assistant and research fellow, later as a senior research fellow. In addition to heading the editorial team of the Zeitschrift für Europäisches Privatrecht and the department responsible for the law of the Nordic countries, Jens Scherpe was also involved in various research projects together with Institute Director (em.) Prof. Dr. Jürgen Basedow. From these resulted, inter alia, Die Rechtsstellung nichtehelicher Lebensgemeinschaften [The Legal Status of Cohabitants] (Mohr Siebeck, 2000) and an amicus brief for the German Federal Constitutional Court, published as Transsexualität, Staatsangehörigkeit und internationales Privatrecht [Transsexuality, Nationality and Private International Law] (Mohr Siebeck, 2004).

Scherpe‘s doctoral dissertation Außergerichtliche Streitbeilegung in Verbrauchersachen – Ein deutsch-dänischer Rechtsvergleich, [Out-of-court Settlement of Consumer Disputes. A Comparison of German and Danish Law] (Mohr Siebeck, 2003) was awarded the Otto-Hahn-Medal of the Max Planck Society as well as the DIS Förderpreis 2003/2004 of the German Institution of Arbitration (DIS).

Prof. Scherpe remains associated with the Institute, currently serving as the President of the Institute’s alumni association, the Freunde des Hamburger Max-Planck-Instituts für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht.