Deutsch Intern
AI and Robot Law Research Centre

Leiter der Forschungsstelle

Prof Dr Dr Eric Hilgendorf

Phone: +49 931 31-82304
E-mail: eric.hilgendorf@uni-wuerzburg.de

Brief profile:

A-levels in Ansbach, followed by military service near Würzburg. Studied philosophy, modern history and law in Tübingen. Graduated in philosophy and history with a master's thesis on the "History of the development of parliamentary freedom of speech in Germany". Doctorate in philosophy with a thesis on "Argumentation in Jurisprudence", doctorate in law with a study on "Criminal producer liability in the risk society". The thesis was honoured with the prize of the Reinhold and Maria Teufel Foundation. 1996 Habilitation in criminal law, criminal procedural law and philosophy of law with the publication "Zur Abgrenzung von Tatsachenaussagen und Werturteilen im Strafrecht". Professor of criminal law and related subjects in Constance since summer term 1997. From winter semester 1998/99 Vice Dean and Dean of Studies, from winter semester 1999/2000 Dean in Constance. Since the summer semester of 2001, Chair of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Legal Theory, Information Law and Legal Informatics at the University of Würzburg. Founded the RobotRecht research centre in 2010 and was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Law in the same year (until 2012).

Memberships and activities:

  • Member of the advisory board of the Giordano Bruno Foundation for Humanism and Enlightenment
  • Director of the Bavarian Institute for Digital Transformation
  • Founding of the Chinese-German Criminal Law Teachers' Association (CDSV) together with Prof Dr Genlin Liang (Peking University)
  • Foundation of the project "Global Systems and Intercultural Competence"
  • Head of the AI, Ethics and Law working group of the Learning Systems Platform (2018-2019)
  • Member of the German-American Lawyers Association
  • Member of the Ethics Commission on Automated and Connected Driving (2016-2017)
  • Member of the Society for Analytical Philosophy
  • Member of the High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence of the EU
  • Member of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy
  • Member of the programme committee of the Virtual University of Bavaria (vhb) from 2005-2009. Ongoing involvement with various online courses on criminal law and criminal procedure law
  • Member of the Criminal Law Teachers' Association
  • Member of the working group on contemporary legal history
  • Member of the Round Table on Automated and Networked Criminal Law
  • Co-editor of the "Juristenzeitung" (JZ)
  • (Co-)editor of the "Robotics and Law" series published by Nomos-Verlag
  • Liaison lecturer at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (2006-2009)
  • Liaison lecturer of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (2002-2006)
  • Chairman of the Juristen Alumni Würzburg

Main areas of work:

  • Legal framework for autonomous systems and artificial intelligence
  • Media criminal law, in particular computer and internet criminal law
  • Media didactics
  • Medical and bio-criminal law, bioethics
  • Criminal protection of life
  • Criminal protection of honour
  • Basic problems of criminal law
  • History of law and philosophy of law
  • Comparative law

A selection of publications can be found here and on the website of his chair.

Research associates

Johannes Härtlein

Research associate
Room: 117
Phone: +49 931 31-80369

Johannes Härtlein studied law at the University of Würzburg and completed his studies in June 2023 with the First State Examination in Law. Since October 2023, he has been working as a research assistant and doctoral candidate at Prof. Hilgendorf's chair. His doctoral thesis deals with a regulatory proposal for generative artificial intelligence, and he is also conducting research on the implementation of the AI Regulation.

Baran Kizilirmak

Research associates
Room: 117
Phone: +49 931 31-81607

Baran Kizilirmak studied law at Ankara University (Turkey) and completed his first master's degree at Istanbul University with a thesis on ‘The Use of Preventively Collected Data in Criminal Proceedings.’ He then completed a second master's degree in European and European Legal Studies at the University of Hamburg, which he attended as a Jean Monnet scholar. After successfully completing the master's programme with his thesis ‘Cross-Border Transfer of Personal Data Under GDPR Regime and Turkish Legal Framework’, he was awarded the academic degree LL.M. After completing his education, he worked for many years as a research assistant at Kadir Has University (Turkey) in the Department of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure. 

With funding from the DAAD, he completed his doctorate on the topic of “Criminal Liability in Offences Involving Autonomous Systems Driven by Artificial Intelligence” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Dr. Eric Hilgendorf and was awarded “summa cum laude”. His legal focus and research interests lie in the areas of information technology, data protection law, artificial intelligence and criminal law.

Student assistants

Lea Hack

Student assistant
Room: 106

Lea Hack has been studying law at the University of Würzburg since October 2021. Since January 2023, she has been working as a student assistant at the chair of Prof. Dr. Dr. Eric Hilgendorf.

Leonora Qerimi

Student assistant
Room: 106

Leonora Qerimi is studying law at the University of Würzburg, along with a minor in European law. Since July 2021, she has been working as a student assistant at the chair of Prof. Dr. Dr. Eric Hilgendorf. Since August 2023, she has been supervising the SafeRoBAY project. Her main areas of interest are European law, copyright law and the digitisation of the judiciary.

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Max Schneider

Student assistant
Room: 144

Max Schneider has been studying law at the University of Würzburg since October 2022. Since July 2024, he has been working as a student assistant in the department of Prof. Dr. Dr. Eric Hilgendorf.