Biography

Tobias Lock joined the School of Law in September 2011 having previously worked as the DAAD-Clifford Chance Lecturer in German Law at UCL from 2007 until 2011 and as a lecturer and researcher at the Chair of Professor Bernhard W. Wegener in the Department of Public Law, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany) from 2004 until 2007.

He read law at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (First State Examination, 2004) and at University College Cork (Diploma in Common Law, 2001). He passed his Second State Examination in 2006 after having completed a two year trainee period at the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Nuremberg and with Jones Day in Brussels. In 2009 the University of Erlangen awarded him a PhD (Dr. iur.) summa cum laude.  He is qualified as a German barrister/solicitor (Rechtsanwalt).

Research Interests

Tobias Lock’s research focuses on European and International Law as well as Comparative Constitutional Law.  

He recently published a book on ‘The relationship between the European Court of Justice and international courts’ (Das Verhältnis zwischen dem EuGH und internationalen Gerichten), which was awarded three prizes (Staedtler Prize, Faculty Prize, Schmitz-Nüchterlein Research Prize).  He is currently researching the EU’s accession to the ECHR and has published widely on the topic.  Furthermore, he researches on the enforcement of EU law and (comparative) fundamental rights law. 

Tobias Lock welcomes approaches from prospective doctoral students interested in researching in these areas: relationship between EU law and other legal orders (in particular the ECHR); the relationship between EU law and national law; private enforcement of EU law; fundamental rights law (in particular law and religion and comparative aspects).

Publications

Papers on SSRN: http://ssrn.com/author=946775

Book

1. Das Verhältnis zwischen dem EuGH und internationalen Gerichten, Mohr Siebeck Verlag, Tübingen 2010, ISBN: 978-3-16-150438-9, 332 pages [The book has won three prizes: Faculty prize, Staedtler Promotionspreis, and Schmitz-Nüchterlein research prize]
2. The relationship between the ECJ and international courts [working title] forthcoming with OUP in 2013
3. (as co-editor with K. Dzehtsiarou/T. Konstadinides/N. O'Meara), Human Rights Law in Europe: The influence, overlaps and contradictions of the EU and ECHR, forthcoming with Routledge in 2013

Articles in peer-reviewed journals

1. Is Private Enforcement of EU Law Through State Liability a Myth? – An Assessment 20 Years after Francovich, 49 Common Market Law Review (2012) 1675-1702 (10,000 words)

2. End of an epic? The draft agreement of the EU's accession to the ECHR, forthcoming Yearbook of European Law 2012
3. Walking on a tightrope: the draft accession agreement and the autonomy of the EU legal order, 48 Common Market Law Review (2011) 1025-1054 (13,500 words)
4. Taking national courts more seriously? Comment on Opinion 1/09, 36 European Law Review (2011) 576-588 (8,500 words)
5. EU Accession to the ECHR:  implications for the judicial review in Strasbourg, 35 European Law Review (2010), 777-799 (12,000 words)
6. Beyond Bosphorus: the European Court of Human Rights’ Case law on the Responsibility of Member States of International Organisations under the European Convention on Human Rights, 10 Human Rights Law Review (2010), 529-545 (7,000 words)
7. The Bundesverfassungsgericht on the Lisbon Treaty and Why the European Union Is Not a State: Some Critical Remarks, 5 European Constitutional Law Review (2009), 407-420 (5,200 words)
8. The European Court of Justice: What Are the Limits of Its Exclusive Jurisdiciton?, 16 The Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law (2009), 291-314 (10,000 words)
9. The ECJ and the ECtHR: The Future Relationship Between the Two European Courts, 8 The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals (2009), 375-398 (7,000 words)
10. Die Großen hängt man, die Kleinen lässt man laufen, Europarecht 2005, 802 (with Bernhard Wegener)

Book Chapters

1. Industriepolitik, forthcoming in: Enzyklopädie des Europarechts, Nomos 2013
2. EU accession to the ECHR, in: Ashiagbor/Countouris/Lianos (eds.), The European Union after the Treaty of Lisbon, Cambridge University Press 2012, 109-135 (9,000 words)
3. Religious Symbols in German Schools, Law, Religious Freedoms and Education in Europe (editor Myriam Hunter-Henin) Ashgate 2012, 347-369 (10,000 words)

Miscellaneous publications

1. A critical comment on the accession of the EU to the ECHR, 8 Justice Journal Volume  (2011), 11-30
2. Book review, Benedikt Schneiders, Die Grundrechte der EU und die EMRK, 48 Common Market Law Review (2011), 630
3. Europas heimliche Hauptstadt, JuS-Magazin 6/2006, 26
4. Judging Nuremberg: The Laws, the Rallies, the Trials, 6 GLJ 2005, 1819 (with Julia Riem)
5. Rückkehr in den Gerichtssaal 600, JZ 2005, 1154 (with Julia Riem)

Teaching

Autumn semester:

LLB (level 5): Law of the ECHR I (convenor)

LLM: Issues in the law of the ECHR (convenor)

Departmental Duties

Examinations officer for the School of Law

Recent Presentations

1. Equality Righs in Europe: Replacing National with European Equality, 16 November 2012, Toronto (Canada) [I am a co-organiser of this conference)
2. EU Accession to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Co-responsibility Mechanism, 4 October 2012, University of Amsterdam, SHARES lecture series [invited speaker]
3. A Europe of Rights: The EU and the ECHR, Guildford [I am a co-organiser of this workshop]
4. FIDE XXV Congress, May 2012, Tallin (Estonia) [national rapporteur for the UK on fundamental rights]
5. FIDE Evening Seminar, 20 March 2012, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London [invited, presenter of UK national report on fundamental rights]
6. Celebrating 20 years of Francovich? The German perspective, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, 18 November 2011 [invited speaker]
7. A comment on the draft accession agreement, Who will be the ultimate guardian of human rights in Europe, 20 May 2011, UCL Laws [I co-organised that conference]
8. A critical look at EU accession to ECHR, It takes two to tango: The Council of Europe and the European Union, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 16 May 2011 [invited speaker]
9. EU Accession to the ECHR: Consequences for the European Court of Justice, EUSA Conference, Boston, USA, 3 March 2011
10. EU Accession to the ECHR: How to Preserve the Autonomy of EU Law, EU External Relations Law and Policy in the post-Lisbon Era, Sheffield, 14 January 2011
11. Religious Symbols in German Schools, Law, Religion and Education: Religious Freedom in the Sphere of Education, 9 October 2010, Oxford [invited speaker]
12. EU Accession to the ECHR, After Lisbon: The Future of European Law & Policy, Conference on European Law & Policy in Context, University of Birmingham, 24 June 2010
13. The future relationship between the two European Courts’, Hot Topics in EU Law, Centre for Law and Governance in Europe, UCL, 16 March 2009
14. Unilateral Withdrawal from the Euratom Treaty, keynote address at the Euratom Conference “Euratom: 50 Years Too Much” held in the European Parliament organised by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and The Greens/EFA, 8 March 2006