Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awards up to 100 research prizes to leading international scholars from all disciplines for their work to date. Scholars can be nominated for the award if their fundamental discoveries, new theories, or their insights have had a lasting impact on their field of study, even beyond their narrow field of work, and if they can be expected to continue their high-level scholarly achievements in the future. The Faculty of Law nominated Prof. Russell A. Miller in 2020. The constitutional law expert usually teaches at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, USA, where he is the J.B. Stombock Professor of Law. Currently He is  serving as the Head of the Max Planck Law Network.  The Network is a consortium of the ten law-related Max Planck Law Institutes. In the past, Prof. Miller has conducted research in Münster with the support of a Karina and Erich Schumann Fellowship. Get to know the award winner better in the interview.

 

First of all, congratulations on the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award. You must have been delighted with the nomination by the faculty. 

Tell us how high you thought your chances were of actually receiving the award and what research project you will now realize here in Münster? 

 

I was very honored by the Münster Law Faculty’s nomination. But the Humboldt Research Prize is one of Germany’s highest academic honors so I tried to have realistic expectations. I’m sure my greatest advantage was the strong and enthusiastic endorsement I received from the Münster Law Faculty. This must have been an impressive signal to the selection committee. I have collaborated with several Münster colleagues over the years, especially as co-editors of the German Law Journal. I think those positive and productive experiences gave my nomination a lot of depth and specificity and a personal quality. Above all, the Münster Law Faculty’s support is responsible for this very humbling recognition.

 

The Prize will allow me to continue my relationship with the Münster Law Faculty and these cherished colleagues in the coming years. It’s valued assistance for my research. I have several projects focusing on German law and legal culture. One of those projects is an English-language textbook introducing German legal culture to foreign students. You can imagine how much that project benefits from having a familiar and supportive “Standbein” in Germany. In Muenster I have the chance to learn from other scholars, many of whom are leaders in their legal disciplines. I can be in contact with Muenster’s excellent students, who have proven to be a great help to my work. And I can use Muenster’s excellent libraries for my research.  

 

You've been here with us in Münster for a while now and were still able to get to know the city before the Corona crisis began. What brought you here and what do you like best about Münster?

 

I know that Germans sometimes view American enthusiasm and romanticism with bemused skepticism! But I won’t restrain that impulse in this case. Münster is a gorgeous university town with a compelling and complex history that especially appeals to someone like me who is interested in public international law and constitutional law. I’m so happy that Prof. Casper, a former German Law Journal colleague, first persuaded me to visit the Law Faculty here. I was supported for two summer-long research stays with a Law Faculty Schumann Fellowship. Thanks to those visits I fell in love with the big Wochenmarkt am Domplatz, I’ve enjoyed Münster’s fine little opera, I’ve gotten lost in conversations at the Floyd Café, and I’ve risked life and limb with a used Hollandrad on the Promenade. I’ve lived all over Germany and by comparison the people in Münster have proven to be warm and welcoming and a lot of fun.

 

You were born and raised in the U.S. and also practiced law there. What sparked your interest in German (constitutional) law?

 

Typically, American law professors spend several years as practicing lawyers before returning to academic life. This is a sign of the practice-oriented and practical nature of American legal education. For many professors there is a link between their work as lawyers and their scholarly research as academics. That’s sort of true for me as well.

 

For several years after I graduated from law school I served as a lawyer representing death row inmates in their appeals. I did this work because I was committed to human rights as a framework of values expressed and realized through law. I also saw it as a chance to take a stand, no matter how small, against the persistent racism in America. That work eventually led to involvement in the case of two German brothers who had been sentenced to death in Arizona. This wasn’t the case of the LeGrand brothers, which would become a major legal conflict between the U.S. and Germany that ended up in front of the World Court in den Haag. My case involved the Apelt brothers. How it was possible for two sets of German brothers to end up on Arizona’s death row is an odd question that probably merits one of those rambling conversations at the Floyd Café. But, because of the German government’s strenuous engagement with the LeGrand case, they also felt obliged to work with the legal team representing the Apelt brothers. The lead lawyers on the Apelt case weren’t sure what to make of the German consular officials who were in regular contact with us. As the youngest – and least experienced – member of the team, the task of coordinating with the Germans fell to me. Those were my first contacts of any kind with Germany. But I formed friendships with the German consular officials who would travel from Los Angeles for updates on the case and visits with the Apelt brothers at the grisly prison out in the desert that housed Arizona’s death row.

 

With the consular officials encouragement I later applied for a year-long Robert Bosch Fellowship. The Bosch Fellowship involved months of intensive German language training and two lengthy work experiences in Germany. I spent several incredible months as an intern at the Federal Constitutional Court and then another several months at the European Court of Human Rights. That’s how I was seduced by German constitutional law specifically and comparative law generally! I later returned to the Constitutional Court as a Mitarberiter, I completed a LL.M. at the University of Frankfurt, and I was lucky to have a long research visit at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg.

 

I hope you’ll understand if I ask to recognize the many German jurists and scholars who generously supported me throughout those adventurous years of discovery and intensive learning. I’m sure I’ll overlook someone, but they included Constitutional Court President Jutta Limbach, Justice Lerke Osterloh, Justice Renate Jaeger, Prof. Jochen Frowein, Prof. Armin von Bogdandy, Prof. Michael Bothe, and Prof. Günter Frankenberg. I was accompanied by my cherished mentor and co-author Prof. Donald Kommers of the Notre Dame Law Faculty. And I was encouraged and challenged and enriched by a years-long partnership with Prof. Peer Zumbansen of the McGill Law Faculty, with whom I co-founded and co-edited the German Law Journal. I owe much to all of these supportive colleagues.

 

Thank you very much for these interesting insights and we wish you success for everything that is to come here in Münster!