Prof. Dr. Ulrich Sieber

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Sieber was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor Honoris Causa of Burgas Free University by the Academic Council (04.12.2015) for his honorable contribution to the modern criminal law sciences and his merits to the development and strengthening of the cooperation between Max Planck Society and Burgas Free University.

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Sieber is the director of the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg/Germany and an honorary professor and faculty member at the law faculties of the University of Freiburg and the University of Munich. He is a visiting professor at the law departments of Peking University, Renmin University, Beijing Normal University, and Wuhan University (all People’s Republic of China) as well as an honorary professor at the Universidad Tecnológica de los Andes (Cusco/Peru).

Prof. Sieber launched his academic career at the University of Freiburg, where he was a researcher and academic staff member from 1973 to 1987. In 1977, he was awarded a doctorate for his dissertation on computer crime and criminal law and completed the bar exam. In 1987 he accepted a position as a 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 legal informatics at the University of Würzburg, where he was dean of the law faculty from 1997 to 1998. In 1994, he was a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo. In April 2000, he accepted an appointment to succeed Prof. Dr. Claus Roxin at the University of Munich.

In October 2003, Prof. Sieber was appointed director at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg. Since 2004, he has also been an honorary professor and law faculty member at the University of Munich and the University of Freiburg, with the authorization to confer doctoral and post-doctoral degrees.

In addition to his academic activities, Prof. Sieber continues to be active as an expert consultant and advisor, especially in the areas of computer law, economic criminal law, and international criminal law. In this capacity, he has served as a special advisor to two EC Commissioners with his expertise on issues of computer law and EC fraud. He has also served on the legal committee and several enquiry commissions of the German Parliament and has advised the German Federal Constitutional Court, the German Ministry of Justice, the German Ministry of Education, Science, Research, and Technology, and the German Federal Police Office. He has also 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.

In Germany, Prof. Sieber is president and a founding member of the German Association for European Criminal Law (Deutsche Vereinigung für Europäisches Strafrecht e.V.), vice president of the German section of the International Association of Penal Law (Association Internationale pour la Défense Sociale, AIDP), member of the board of the European Center of Law at the University of Würzburg, chairman of the Ethics Council of the Max Planck Society, member of the foundation board of the German Foundation for Law and Computer Science (DSRI), member of the scholarship council of the Minerva Foundation, member of the information safety commission of the Max Planck Society as well as of the foundation board of the Olav Brennhovd Foundation.

Internationally, he is vice president of the Scientific Committee of the International Association of Penal Law (AIDP), vice president of the International Academy of Comparative Law (IACL), vice president of the International Society of Social Defence and Humane Criminal Policy (iSSD), member of the board of directors of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences (ISISC), German contact point for the European Criminal Law Academic Network (ECLAN), honorary member of the Japanese Association of Criminal Law Professors, and honorary member of the Ilustre Colegio de Abogados del Cusco.

Prof. Sieber is editor of the Strafrechtliche Forschungsberichte (Reports on Research in Criminal Law) of the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, of the European series ius informationis and ius criminale, and of the series Max Planck Research on International, European, and Comparative Criminal Law.

The research program of Prof. Sieber at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg is closely attuned to current changes in crime, criminal law, and criminal policy in today’s global information and risk society.