Russell Miller teaches and researches in the fields of constitutional law, international law, comparative law theory and methods, and German law and legal culture. He is the author or editor of several books on international law, constitutional law, comparative law theory and methods, and German law and legal culture, including: Constitutional Places – Landmarks on the Road to German Democracy (Kunth 2025); An Introduction to German Law and Legal Culture (CUP 2024); Privacy and Power: A Transatlantic Dialogue in the Shadow of the NSA-Affair (CUP 2017); The Constitutional Jurisprudence of the Federal Republic of Germany (Duke 2012); Progress in International Law (Brill 2008); and Transboundary Harm in International Law: Lessons from the Trail Smelter Arbitration (CUP 2006). His articles and commentary have appeared in respected journals and in the international media. Miller is a two-time Fulbright Senior Research Fellow. In 2021 he was awarded a Humboldt Research Prize in recognition of his research on German law and his contributions to transatlantic understanding. Miller is the co-founder of the German Law Journal and the Berlin-based Rule of Law Academy. From 2020-2022, Miller served as the head of the Max Planck Law Network, a consortium of ten world-class research institutes involving more than twenty research directors and more than 400 PhD candidates, post-doctoral reserachers, and guest researchers. He has been a regular visiting fellow at universities and research institutes in Germany, including the Max Planck Institute for Public International Law (Heidelberg), the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the University of Münster, and the University of Freiburg. He served as a law clerk at the German Federal Constitutional Court and for Judge Robert H. Whaley of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. Miller has degrees from Washington State University (BA 1991), Duke University (MA and JD 1994) and the University of Frankfurt (2002). He was a DAAD/AGI Research Fellow in 2015.
Episode 129: German Constitutional Law and Banning Extremist Political Parties
Even though it came in second place in the 2025 German federal election, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) was subsequently classified as an extremist party by the Office for the …
How to Kill an Idea: An American’s Observations on the NPD Party-Ban Proceedings
How should a democracy protect itself from forces that seem intent on destroying freedom and open discourse? The German constitution (Basic Law) establishes a “militant democracy” that is prepared to …
Law Land: Germany as a Legal Super Power
German-American Issues 17 Germany has increasingly found itself in a leadership role in the twenty-first century. On challenges ranging from Russian aggression in Ukraine, to the European economic crisis, to …
The Tattered German-American Relationship Needs the USA FREEDOM Act…More for What It Doesn’t Do than for What It Does
Congress is debating the USA FREEDOM Act in the next days. The House approved Representative Jim Sensenbrenner’s version of the law on Wednesday and the Senate is expected to vote …
Privacy and Power
The Germans are angry. They have been simmering since Edward Snowden’s disclosures last summer revealed the startling extent of American intelligence-gathering and data-collection activities in Europe. Now they are boiling-over. …
The Church Committee and Contemporary Surveillance
Recently, AGI Non-Resident Fellow, Dr. Russell A. Miller, detailed the “1975 Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities” and its implications for contemporary surveillance in …
After the Decision is Before the Decision
Professor Russell Miller is a Professor of Law at Washington & Lee University School of Law, as well as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of German Law Journal. Professor Miller has also co-authored an upcoming …
Germany’s Founding Pillars at 60: Future Challenges and Choices
German-American Issues 10 This German-American Issues edition, “Germany’s Founding Pillars at 60: Future Challenges and Choices” (#10), examines the dimensions of the three pillars on which the Federal Republic was …
