Professor Tristan Barczak

Professor Tristan Barczak, LL.M., studied law at the University of Münster, earning his doctoral title (Dr. iur.) in 2011 at the Institute of Public Law and Politics located on the university's premises. After completing a master’s degree in medical and health law (LL.M.) and the mandatory practical clerkship at the Higher Regional Court of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, he was employed as a research assistant at the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) from 2014 to 2017. Since 2020, he holds the Chair of Public Law, Security Law and Law of New Technologies at the University of Passau.

"The question, how the state manifests itself to its citizens has kept me busy since I started my studies. It's a question that used to be answered differently in the past than today, and the relationship of state and citizens will continue to figure as one of the fundamental questions in state and administrative law. To my mind, this has always been closely tied to the relationship between freedom and security. Freedom and security are quite often considered to be opposites and mutually exclusive. During the COVID 19 pandemic, it became clear that they supplement each other and need to be balanced out so that the state and society can develop the resilience needed to weather the ubiquitous crises – with macrosocial effects that linger to this day. The management of climate change effects, the fight against international terrorism, or our response to the challenges that war and displacement pose (e.g. migration) have brought back the old conundrum of freedom and security and require new, modern answers. Finding these in dialogue with my research fellows, formulating them, and working them into policy or judicial decision-making is something that fascinates and motivates me in my daily work."

More about Professor Barczaks research

In his research, Professor Tristan Barczak, LL.M., focuses on constitutional and administrative law, security law (police and regulatory law, the right of assembly, the law of intelligence services, disaster and civil defence law), law of new technlogies, and judicial methodology.