Christoph Engel How Are a Plaintiff’s Chances Affected by the Composition of the Court?

Christoph Engel is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods (Bonn, Germany) and has held teaching positions at several universities, including the position of Chair for Experimental Law and Economics at Erasmus University Law School in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He is also an Honorary Professor of the University of Osnabrück, Germany. His research focus includes Behavioral and Experimental Law and Economics. Engel has been serving as a member of several advisory boards, including the Academic Board to the German Minister of Economics and Labor, and is a member of the Academia Europaea.

Area of Research

Behavioural Law and Economics, Economic Law, Experimental Law and Economics

Christoph Engel, Heike Hennig-Schmidt, Bernd Irlenbusch and Sebastian Kube. "On Probation. An Experimental Analysis." Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 12 (2015): 252-288.  
Christoph Engel. "Social Preferences Can Make Imperfect Sanctions Work: Evidence from a Public Good Experiment." Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 108 (2014): 343-353.  
Christoph Engel and Theodore Eisenberg. "Assuring Civil Damages Adequately Deter: A Public Good Experiment." Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 11 (2014): 301-349.  
Christoph Engel. Generating Predictability. Institutional Analysis and Institutional Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.  

since 2013

Chairman

Humanities Section, Max Planck Society

since 2012

Chairman

Advisory Council Amsterdam Center of Law and Economics

since 2004

Honorary Professor

University of Osnabrück (Universität Osnabrück)

Faculty of Law

since 2003

Member, Academic Advisory Council

Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung, Mannheim

since 2003

Director

Max Planck Society (more details)

Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods

since 2003

Member

University of Bonn (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn)

Rechts- und Staatswissenschaftliche Fakultät

since 1997

Member, Academic Advisory Council

German Ministry of Economics

2012-2013

Sanders Chair

Erasmus University Rotterdam

Law School

2008-2009

Member of the Board

Vereinigung der Deutschen Staatsrechtslehrer

2002-2012

Member, Academic Advisory Council

Hochschule für Verwaltungswissenschaften Speyer

2008-2013

Member of the Board (Hochschulrat)

University of Erfurt (Universität Erfurt)

1997-2000

Co-Chairman, National Research Council, Steering Committee,

Global Networks and Local Values

1997-2003

Head

Max Planck Project Group for the Law of Common Goods

1992-1997

Full Professor

University of Osnabrück (Universität Osnabrück)

Chair for Media and Communications Law

1983-1992

Research Assistant / Research Associate, Public Law, Media and Communications Law

Max Planck Society (more details)

Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law

1980-1983

Research Assistant, Public Law and Public International Law

University of Tübingen (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)

1992

Post Doctoral Thesis

University of Hamburg (Universität Hamburg)

1988

Doctoral Thesis

University of Tübingen (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)

1987

Second State Exam in Law

University of Hamburg (Universität Hamburg)

1981

First State Exam in Law

University of Tübingen (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)

- Book Series Law and Economics of International Telecommunications

- Book Series Common Goods: Law, Politics and Economics

- International Seminars on the New Institutional Economics

Prizes

- Friedwart Bruckhaus Förderpreis, Hanns Martin Schleyer Stiftung (1989)

Fellowships

- Member, Academia Europaea (2002)

© Maximilian Dörrbecker

Max Planck Society


"The Max Planck Society is Germany's most successful research organization. Since its establishment in 1948, no fewer than 18 Nobel laureates have emerged from the ranks of its scientists, putting it on a par with the best and most prestigious research institutions worldwide. The more than 15,000 publications each year in internationally renowned scientific journals are proof of the outstanding research work conducted at Max Planck Institutes – and many of those articles are among the most-cited publications in the relevant field." (Source)

Institute

Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods

"Many goods are not obviously best provided by unregulated markets. This does not necessarily imply that government does a better job. But research can do society a service in defining why markets have a hard time with some goods, and in comparing institutional arrangements aiming at their provision. In a precise way, the problem is defined by the concept of public goods. Capitalising on the theory of mechanism design, it can be further improved. Using experimental methods, it can be put into perspective. Yet some social dilemmas are better analysed in alternative categories. It may even be preferable to start analytically from the political decision to intervene into markets. The institute tackles these questions from the combined perspectives of economics, law and psychology. While the institute started with applications from environmental problems, current work focuses on antitrust, regulation and financial stability." (Source)

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When one comes before a court, how can the chances of success be assessed? In this video, CHRISTOPH ENGEL considers the impact of the makeup of the German Constitutional Court (in terms of the panel of justices presiding) on a plaintiff’s prospects. Focusing on the effect of the justices’ familiarity with one another both before and after recompositions of the court, Engel identifies a positive relationship between such familiarity and a plaintiff’s prospect of success. Noting that the strength of this relationship differs for different outcomes (e.g. success on the merits v procedural requests), Engel’s work opens a path for further research on political bias as well as on the data published by the German Constitutional Court.

LT Video Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB101044

Lucky You: Your Case is Heard by a Seasoned Panel – Panel Effects in the German Constitutional Court

  • Christoph Engel
  • Journal of Empirical Legal Studies
  • Published in 2022
Christoph Engel. "Lucky You: Your Case is Heard by a Seasoned Panel – Panel Effects in the German Constitutional Court." Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 19 (2022). doi:https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3790366.