New at the Department: Law and Society

As an expert in international criminal law, transitional justice, and environmental crime, Dr. Nandor Knust has cultivated a career spanning multiple countries and institutions. He currently also serves as Project Leader of ECO-CRIM-NET, a global network dedicated to monitoring, investigating, and prosecuting crimes against ecosystems. This role underscores his commitment to addressing emerging forms of environmental harm through law and policy on an international scale. 

His academic journey began in Germany and France. He earned his law degree (Staatsexamen) from the University of Frankfurt am Main and obtained a Maîtrise en Droit Public International from the University of Paris X (Nanterre). Complementing his formal education, he engaged directly with international justice at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha. This formative experience with a UN tribunal in post-conflict settings deepened his understanding of atrocity crimes and transitional justice, shaping his later research and practice. He continued to extensive work and research stays in the whole Great Lakes Region of Africa for over six years. 

Following his doctoral work in Germany, Nandor Knust spent over a decade at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg. He also coordinated initiatives through the African Foundation for International Law, reflecting a broad international engagement in legal scholarship. During this period, Dr. Knust held academic appointments and collaborations across Europe, Africa, Middle East, and beyond – including teaching and research positions in Finland and Tanzania, a senior research fellowship in London, and visiting scholar roles in Copenhagen and Tehran – underscoring the truly global scope of his experience. 

In addition to his university roles, Dr. Knust is active in several international scholarly networks and editorial boards. He is co-editor of the Routledge book series “Socio-Legal Frontiers of Transitional Justice”, which explores innovative approaches to justice in societies emerging from conflict, and a co-editor of the German Law Journal, an influential open-access publication that fosters transnational and interdisciplinary legal scholarship. His contributions to the field have been recognized with prestigious honors, notably the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society for outstanding research in 2014. 

Across all his roles, he has demonstrated a strong commitment to interdisciplinary legal scholarship, frequently collaborating across borders and academic disciplines. Through his teaching, research, and leadership of global initiatives like ECO-CRIM-NET, Nandor Knust continues to advance the understanding of how law can address complex international and environmental challenges in a collaborative and impactful way. 

During the winter semester, he will teach courses in the MAHRS, ICEUS and BASIB programmes on topics such as transitional justice, international criminal justice, justiciability of human rights and digital forensics. Field trips to the Arolsen Archives and the Nuremberg Trials Memorial will complement his teaching.