Prof Herwig C. H. HOFMANN

Herwig C. H. Hofmann is Professor of European and Transnational Public Law at the University of Luxembourg and Head of the Department of Law

Professor Hofmann is member of numerous international and national scientific organisations, is member of the scientific boards of several legal journals. He was the University of Luxembourg’s first Professor of Law (2004) where he was also founder of the Centre for European Law (2006) and founder of the Robert Schuman Institute for European Affairs (2015-2021) a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. He has served also as Head of the Research Unit Law (2006-2011) and as Head of the Department of Law (since 2020) and was awarded the at the University of Luxembourg by the European Commission in 2012. Jean Monnet Chair in European Public Law

Hofmann teaches EU public and European and international trade and regulatory law. At the University of Luxembourg, he also has a long record of PhD education, including as head of the PhD school and as headed the Doctoral Training Unit DILLAN (Digitalisation, Law and Innovation) funding for 17 PhDs. Prior to joining the University of Luxembourg, he was full time lecturer in law at Trinity College Law School in Dublin, Ireland. Professor Hofmann has held visiting positions at institutions in Europe (including at Sciences Po in Paris and the EUI in Florence), in the US (including at Columbia Law School in New York and the University of San Francisco Law School) and in Asia (at Chuo University in Tokyo). Hofmann is a graduate of the Universities of Oxford (M.Jur) and Hamburg (Dr.iur).

Professor Hofmann has conducted numerous projects and is the author and co-author of books. In the field of EU public law the book ‘Administrative Law and Politics of the European Union’ (1st ed. Oxford 2011, 2 revised edition forthcoming this year with OUP) sets out conceptual foundations of EU administrative and regulatory law. In EU economic and regulatory law, Hofmann published ‘Specialised Matters of EU Administrative Law’ (OUP, Oxford 2018) and conducted a multi-annual research projects on EU constitutional law and regulatory changes have led to the publications of the ‘The Metamorphosis of the European Economic Constitution’ (Elgar 2019). In matters of competition policy a full analysis of ‘State Aid Law of the European Union’ was published by OUP, Oxford in 2016. Structural developments within the EU legal system are addressed in the books ‘The External Dimension of EU Agencies’ (Elgar 2018) and ‘EU Administrative Governance’ (Elgar 2006). These books focus on aspects of governance and government in Europe’s multi-level system.

One of the research lines developed in recent years has been the influence of digitalisation and effects of AI driven decision-making procedures in public law. Here, a key publication is the 2024 OUP book on ‘Governance of Automated Decision Making and EU law’.

Hofmann’s work on comparative public law has led to publishing the Oxford Handbook on Comparative Administrative Law (OUP, Oxford 2021), with his specific contribution focussing on methodological understanding of research frameworks in comparative public law. Other books in the context of comparative public include ‘Comparative Perspectives on Administrative Procedure’ (Durham 2017) and ‘Transatlantic Perspectives on Administrative Law’ (Brussels 2011). The latter explore network theories and research in various policy areas across comparative approaches. A focus of the work is comparative federalism.

Hofmann is one of the coordinators of the and one of the co-authors and co-editors of the ‘ReNEUAL Model Rules on EU Administrative Procedure’, a result of a large collaborative undertaking of researchers across Europe to develop workable standards of procedural justice for implementation of EU law. The model rules are translated and published in seven languages (EN, ES, DE, FR, IT, PL, RO), last by OUP in Oxford 2017. Research Network on European Administrative Law (ReNEUAL)

Professor Hofmann has gained a reputation as litigator before the CJEU appearing before the Court in high-profile cases including the Schrems cases developing European and international standards of fundamental rights protection concerning privacy and data protection as well as defining the conditions of the right to an effective judicial remedy. Hofmann is also the author of commentaries on Article 47 of the Charter of the European Union as well as a study on non-judicial dispute settlement in the EU ‘Accountability in the EU – The Role of the European Ombudsman’ (Elgar 2017).

In matters of legislation, Hofmann has been active advising Luxembourg, German and French governments (inter alia the French Prime Minister’s legislative service on the 2015 ‘Code des relations entre le public et les administrations’). Professor Hofmann was also commissioned to support drafting of the European Parliament’s the first ever fully formulated own legislative proposal (the 2016 proposal for a Regulation ‘on the Administrative Procedure of the European Union’s institutions, bodies, offices and agencies’).