Hans-Joachim Schütz, born in Salzburg, Austria, in 1948. Ph.D. from Salzburg University. Professor of Public Law, European Law, Public International Law and International Relations at the University of Rostock.
Dutch/North Rhine-Westphalia Fellow (1 September 1999 – 30 June 2000)
As one of the two Fellows of the joint Dutch/North Rhine-Westphalian Duo-Fellowship-programme, Civil societies compared: Germany and the Netherlands 1850-2000 I made substantial progress in my research work with respect to the following two subject matters. On the one hand, I succeeded in laying some terminological as well as conceptual ground for the analysis of civil society in a constitutional law context which did not exist so far. On the other hand, I carried out comparative research on local self-government and political participation at the local level in Germany and in the Netherlands as an essential feature of civil society. Several articles and a small monograph will be the material outcome of these endeavours. Furthermore, one other outcome of my work at NIAS is a conference on Political and Constitutional Law Aspects of Civil Society in Germany and the Netherlands, co-organised with my Duo-Fellow Michael Schäfer. The conference contributions will be published as a separate conference volume.
Finally, I would like to mention that I have benefited enormously from the interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange with Michael Schäfer. This kind of Duo-Fellowship, embedded in the congenial context and atmosphere of NIAS, proved to be an indispensable and extremely productive framework for the pursuit of the research tasks envisaged by the above-mentioned Dutch/North Rhine-Westphalian research programme.
Other activities during my fellowship comprised writing a paper to be presented in an International Congress in Stockholm, submission of three proposals for future Congress participation, and design of a common research project with Catholic University of Brussels.