Law Land: Germany as a Legal Super Power
Russell A. Miller
Washington and Lee School of Law
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.
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 turmoil and resulting refugees from the Middle East, it is Germany who has been in the driver’s seat. This role was nearly unthinkable seventy years ago.
The German approach to these and other twenty-first century challenges is underpinned by a legal outlook that is deeply rooted in civil law and a tendency to depict issues through “a formalistically legal lens.” This outlook has at times put Germany at odds with its partners, but it has allowed Germany to assume a position of strength and legitimacy on the world stage.
This volume of AGI’s German-American Issues series discusses the evolution of the German legal system and its use in various contexts, including economic and security. It portrays Germany’s legal foundation as a particular strength that has allowed the country to gain soft power in international affairs.
