Professor Tristan Barczak

"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."