Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ulrich Sieber
Director
Main Research:
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ulrich Sieber is director at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg/Germany, an honorary professor and faculty member at the law faculties of the University of Freiburg and the University of Munich, an advisory professor at the law department of Renmin University of Beijing/China, and a guest professor at the law departments of the Beijing Normal University/China and of the University of Wuhan/China.
His main areas of research encompass the changing face of crime, criminal law, and legal policy in today’s "global risk society." The primary focus of his research is on the territorial and functional limits of criminal law in the prosecution of new types of transnational and complex crime. Major project areas include organized crime, terrorism, economic crime, and cybercrime as well as comparative criminal law, European criminal law, and international criminal law.
Academic Background:
Prof. Sieber launched his academic career at the University of Freiburg, where he was a research assistant from 1973 to 1987. In 1977, he earned his doctorate from that university with a thesis entitled "Computer Crime and Criminal Law" (Computerkriminalität und Strafrecht) and completed his bar exam. From 1978 to 1987, he also worked as a private attorney specializing in computer law. He completed his post-doctoral lecturing qualification at the University of Freiburg in 1987 with a Habilitation on the relationship between substantive criminal law and criminal procedure. In the same year, he accepted a position as Professor of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Information Law at the University of Bayreuth. In 1991, Prof. Sieber became Professor of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Information Law, and Computer Technology in Law at the University of Würzburg, where he was dean of the law faculty from 1997 to 1998. He declined an offer from the University of Münster in 1994 (Professor of Computer Technology in Law). In that same year, he was a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo. In April 2000, he accepted an appointment from the University of Munich as Professor of Criminal Law, Information Law, and Computer Technology in Law.
In October 2003, Prof. Sieber was appointed director at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg and scientific member of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science. Since 2003, he has also been an honorary professor and the scientific director of the Center for Information Technology in Law at the law faculty of the University of Munich. He has been an honorary professor at the law faculty of the University of Freiburg since 2004. As a faculty member, he is authorized to supervise doctoral and post-doctoral candidates at both universities. He is also the initiator and spokesperson of the International Max Planck Research School for Comparative Criminal Law (IMPRS-CC), a cooperative venture of the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg and the law faculty of the University of Freiburg.
National and International Consulting:
In addition to his academic work, Prof. Sieber continues to be active as an expert consultant and legal counsel, especially in the areas of computer law and international criminal law. In his consultancy work, he has served as a special advisor to two EC Commissioners with his expertise on issues of computer law and EC fraud. Other advisory functions include serving on the legal committee and several enquiry commissions of the German Parliament, the German Ministry of Justice, the German Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology, as well as the German Federal Police Office. He has advised the Council of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the Research Ministers of the G-8 nations (Carnegie Group), the OECD, the United Nations, and the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. He has also been a consultant to the U.S. Senate, the Canadian Ministry of Justice, and the National Police Agency of Japan as well as an expert for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Memberships and Editorships:
Prof. Sieber is president and a founding member of the German Association for European Criminal Law (Vereinigung für Europäisches Strafrecht e.V.), vice president of the Association Internationale pour la Défense Sociale, a member of the board of directors of the International Association of Penal Law (AIDP) and a vice president of its German section, a member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, a member of the board of the European Center for European Law at the University of Würzburg, and an honorary member of the Japanese Association of Criminal Law Professors.
He is the editor of the Strafrechtliche Forschungsberichte [Reports on Research in Criminal Law]
of the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg, the online publication eucrim, the European series ius informationis, and ius criminale. He is also co-editor of the book series ius europaeum, the foreign press review of the Zeitschrift für die gesamte Strafrechtswissenschaft (ZStW), the periodical Multimedia und Recht, the European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, and the compendium Multimedia-Recht.
In addition, he is a member of the advisory council of the law journals Computer und Recht and Revista Penal, a member of the editorial board of the law journal “International Criminal Law,” and a member of the advisory board of the law journal “Money Laundering Control.”
Current Research Program:
The starting point of Prof. Sieber’s research can be found in the social changes associated with the terms “global society,” “information society,” and “risk society.” New challenges to criminal law emerge with these changes. The evolving criminal landscape is characterized by increasingly transnational elements of crime, a high risk potential, and a considerable degree of complexity, developments that are especially apparent in the areas of economic crime, organized crime, and terrorism – the focus of the current research program.
These developments have pushed traditional criminal law to its territorial and functional limits as regards the protection of society and the guarantees of individual freedoms. New questions arise, for example, as to the conception of a transnational and effective criminal law, the role of criminal law in the context of the emerging preventive orientation towards security interests, as well as with regard to alternative systems of social control.
Against this background, the research program of the Department of Criminal Law at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law pursues three related, progressive research goals, namely: (1) the analysis of empirical changes in delinquency and security risks in a society shaped by globalization, technological advances, and economic development; (2) the examination and critical evaluation of the corresponding normative changes in criminal law and practice; and (3) the development of viable responses to present-day and future criminal policy issues spawned by these changes.
The primary research methods used to achieve these goals include legal doctrine, international criminal law science, and comparative criminal law as well as methods of empirical social research and the inclusion of fundamental questions of legal theory, international law, European law, and human rights.
Curriculum vitae en español
El profesor Dr. Dr. h.c. Ulrich Sieber es director del Instituto Max Planck para el Derecho penal extranjero e internacional de Friburgo de Brisgovia, así como profesor honorario [more]
Publications (selection):
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From the vantage point of comparative criminal law, Prof. Sieber’s publications deal, in particular, with issues relating to European criminal law, modern-day media law, and organized crime. Two of his books have been translated into Japanese; his “International Handbook on Computer Crime” was published in French. Articles on issues of computer law and economic criminal law have been published in Chinese, Danish, English, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Complete list of publications
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Recent research program publications:
- Sieber, Ulrich: Rechtliche Ordnung in einer globalen Welt, Rechtstheorie Bd. 41 (2010) (forthcoming in issue 2 or 3 and in English in the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law, vol. 15, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden 2010).
- Sieber, Ulrich: Die Zukunft des Europäischen Strafrechts – Ein neuer Ansatz zu den Zielen und Modellen des europäischen Strafrechtssystems. In: Zeitschrift für die Gesamte Strafrechswissenschaft (ZStW), 2009, p. 1 - 67.
- Sieber, Ulrich: Legitimation und Grenzen von Gefährdungsdelikten im Vorfeld terroristischer Gewalt – Eine Analyse der Vorfeldtatbestände im "Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Verfolgung der Vorbereitung von schweren staatsgefährdenden Gewalttaten". In: Neue Zeitschrift für Strafrecht (NStZ), 2009, p. 353 - 364.
- Sieber, Ulrich: Sperrverpflichtungen gegen Kinderpornografie im Internet – Bewertung und Weiterentwicklung des Gesetzentwurfs BT-Drucks. 16/12850 vom 5.5.2009. In: JuristenZeitung (JZ), 2009, p. 653 - 662.
- Sieber, Ulrich: Blurring the Categories of Criminal Law and the Law of War – Efforts and Effects in the Pursuit of Internal and External Security. In: Manacorda, S. / Nieto Martín, A. (ed(s).): Criminal Law Between War and Peace – Justice and Cooperation in Criminal Matters in International Military Interventions. Cuenca, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2009, p. 35 - 79.
- Sieber, Ulrich / Nolde, Malaika: Sperrverfügungen im Internet. Nationale Rechtsdurchsetzung im globalen Cyberspace? Schriftenreihe des Max-Planck-Instituts für ausländisches und internationales Strafrecht. Criminal Law Research Reports, vol. S 113. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2008, XX + 263 pages.
- Sieber, Ulrich: The Forces Behind the Harmonization of Criminal Law. In: Delmas-Marty, M. / Pieth, M. / Sieber, U. (ed(s).): Les Chemins de l’Harmonisation Pénale/Harmonising Criminal Law, Collection de L’UMR de Droit Comparé de Paris, Bd. 15. Paris, Société de législation comparée, 2008, p. 385 - 417.
- Sieber, Ulrich: Mastering Complexity in the Global Cyberspace: The Harmonization of Computer-Related Criminal Law. In: Delmas-Marty, M. / Pieth, M. / Sieber, U. (ed(s).): Les chemins de l’Harmonisation Pénale/Harmonising Criminal Law, Collection de L’UMR de Droit Comparé de Paris, Bd. 15. Paris, Société de législation comparée, 2008, p. 127 - 202.
- Sieber, Ulrich: Compliance-Programme im Unternehmensstrafrecht. Ein neues Konzept zur Kontrolle von Wirtschaftskriminalität. In: Sieber, U. / u.a. (ed(s).): Festschrift für Klaus Tiedemann zum 70. Geburtstag. Köln/München, Duncker & Humblot, 2008, p. 449 - 484.
- Sieber, Ulrich: Ermittlungen in Sachen Liechtenstein – Fragen und erste Antworten. In: Neue Juristische Wochenschrift (NJW), 2008, Issue⁄Volume 61, p. 881 - 886.
- Sieber, Ulrich / Brunst, Phillip: Cyberterrorism and Other Use of the Internet for Terrorist Purposes – Threat Analysis and Evaluation of International Conventions. In: Council of Europe (ed(s).): Cyberterrorism – the use of the Internet for terrorist purposes. Strasbourg, Council of Europe Publishing, 2007, p. 9 - 105.
- Sieber, Ulrich: Grenzen des Strafrechts. Grundlagen und Herausforderungen des neuen strafrechtlichen Forschungsprogramms am Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Strafrecht. In: Zeitschrift für die Gesamte Strafrechtswissenschaft (ZStW), 2007, Issue⁄Volume 119, p. 1 - 68.
- Sieber, Ulrich: Strafrechtsvergleichung im Wandel. Aufgaben, Methoden und Theorieansätze der vergleichenden Strafrechtswissenschaft. In: Sieber, U. / Albrecht, H.-J. (eds.): Strafrecht und Kriminologie unter einem Dach. Kolloquium zum 90. Geburtstag von Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Hans-Heinrich Jescheck. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2006, p. 78 - 130.