> Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoeren

Address

Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoeren
Institut für Informations-, Telekommunikations- und Medienrecht- Zivilrechtliche Abteilung -Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoeren
Leonardo-Campus 9, Room 110.118
D – 48149 Münster
Telephone: +49/251/ 83-38600
Telefax: +49/251/ 83-38601
E-Mail: hoeren@uni-muenster.de

Studies

Thomas Hoeren studied Catholic Theology and Law at the Universities of Tübingen, Münster and London Guildhall University from 1980 to 1987. In 1986 he graduated from Theology in Münster as Lic. theol. with a book on “Data protection and Churches”. From October 1986 to May 1988 he wrote his doctorate’s thesis in IT Law at the University of Münster (title of the dissertation: “Softwareüberlassung als Sachkauf” (“Software Licensing as a Product Purchase”)). In May 1994, Thomas Hoeren qualified as a professor of Civil Law (degree: Dr. habil.) at the Faculty of Law of the University of Münster (title: “Selbstregulierung im Banken- und Versicherungsrecht” (“Problems in competition law with regard to self-regulation in the banking and insurance sector”)).

Academic career

Hoeren taught at the Faculty of Law of the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf from April 1994 to June 1997. He was appointed a professor of Information, Media and Business Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Münster and Head of the Institute for Information, Telecommunication and Media Law in June 1997. This Institute deals with Civil Law, Public Law and Criminal Law on the Information Law sector and conducts research on Industrial Property Rights and E-Learning. In 2004 Hoeren was appointed a Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute of the Balliol College (Oxford). 2014 he worked as a visiting research fellow at the Berkman Center (Harvard Law School) and at the Stanford Law School. Since 2004 Hoeren is also a lecturer at the Academy of Art of Münster for Copyright Law and Art Law. Additionally, he is a lecturer for Information and IT law at the University of Zurich and the University of Vienna.

Hoeren is an editorial member of the magazine “Computer und Recht” and a co-editor of the magazines “Information and Communications Technology Law” and the “International Journal of Law and Information Technology” (Oxford University Press). In 1998, he became co-editor of the peer-reviewed law journal Multimedia und Recht (MMR) and the Law Journal on Data Protection Law/ZD.

Legal career

From June 1996 until the end of 2011 Hoeren was a Judge at the Court of Appeals in Düsseldorf (Senate of Competition Law & IPR). Hoeren worked as one of the legal advisors of the European Commission (former DG XIII) at the “Legal Advisory Board on Information Technology” and as a member of the Task Force Group on Intellectual Property of the European Commission. Furthermore, he serves as academic counsel to the DENIC eG and is a board member of the Research Center for Information Law of the University of St. Gallen. Since June 2000 he is working as a ‘domain name panelist’ for the WIPO and for the European Commission/CAC . In 2005 he became a member of the Expert Committee for Copyright and Publishing Law at the German Union for Intellectual Property Protection. From 2012 to 2o14 he was the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Muenster. He is working as an adjunct professor at the Fraunhofer Institute for Information technology (FIT).

Publications

The list of publications is available online.

Video-Publications