Professor Dr. Horst Dreier was born in 1954. After graduating from Hannover University Law School, he started his academic work as a research assistant for Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Hasso Hofmann at Wuerzburg University Law School. He wrote his dissertation on the Austrian legal scholar Hans Kelsen (Rechtslehre, Staatssoziologie und Demokratietheorie bei Hans Kelsen, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1st edition 1986, 2nd edition 1990) who is counted among the most famous lawyers of the 20th century. In July 1989, he obtained the venia legendi for public law, legal theory and administrative sciences (habilitation thesis: Hierarchische Verwaltung im demokratischen Staat, Tübingen: Mohr, 1991). Professor Dreier began working as a lecturer at the Law Schools of Wuerzburg and Heidelberg. Subsequently, he became the director of the Institute for Administrative Sciences and a tenured professor for public law at Hamburg University in 1991. Five years later, he accepted the chair of 'Legal Philosophy,  Constitutional and Administrative Law' at the Law School of Wuerzburg University. In October 2001, he declined the offer to be appointed a professor for legal philosophy, sociology of law and public law at Mainz University.

Professor Dreier's lectures in Constitutional Law have been voted 'best class' for three consecutive semesters; the Bavarian State Ministry of Sciences, Research and the Arts awarded him the 'Prize for Good Teaching 1999'. From 2001 to 2003 he administered the office of Dean of the Wuerzburg Law Faculty. Furthermore, he held the office of advisory teacher for the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (1996-2001).  He was elected expert for 'Legal and State Philosophy' of the  German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, 2000-2004) and member of the Advisory Council of the 'Forschungsstaette der Evangelischen Studiengemeinschaft e.V.' (since 2000). He accepted a nomination from the German Federal Government for the new National Ethics Council (2001). The President of the Republic of Austria awarded him the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (“Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst”) with resolution from 30 December 2002. On 7 February 2003, he became member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (philosophical-historical department). In the same year, he was voted chairman of the German Public Law Teachers’ Association. During the university year of 2003/04 he was also elected as a member of the law section of the German Research Foundation for the subject “Legal and State Philosophy, general History of Law, History of Constitutional Law”. Professor Dreier is spending the academic year 2005/06 as a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin).

Professor Dreier's scholarly interests focus on Constitutional Law and Legal Philosophy. He is the editor of a three volume commentary on the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz-Kommentar; vol. I: Art. 1-19, 2^nd ed. 2004, vol. II: Art. 20-82, 2^nd ed. 2006, vol. III: Art. 83-146, 2000). Together with Peter Badura, he edited the two-volume “Festschrift 50 Jahre Bundesverfassungsgericht” for the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the German Federal Constitutional Court. In addition, he co-edits a law and philosophy series (Würzburger Vorträge zur Rechtsphilosophie, Rechtstheorie und Rechtssoziologie), two public law journals („Die Öffentliche Verwaltung“ and „Zeitschrift für Gesetzgebung. Vierteljahresschrift für staatliche und kommunale Rechtssetzung“) and the recently started series on the „Foundations of Jurisprudence“ („Grundlagen der Rechtswissenschaft“) by Mohr Siebeck Publishing House.

For more details please see the German page and the overview on scholarly interests and publications.