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Podcast with Prof. Dr. Voeneky in the MPIL100 series

On January 9, 2025, Prof. Dr. Voeneky recorded a podcast entitled “From Terrorism to AI: Legal Scholarship in Changing Times,” in the MPIL100 series about her research activities at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg from 2001 to 2011. During this time, Silja Voeneky was a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute, where she led an independent research group. In the podcast, she talks in particular about her research on the applicability of international humanitarian law after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as the difficult debates with the US position at the time, which was primarily represented by the Bush administration (see also Vöneky’s blog entry in the MPIL100 series: The Courage to Dissent. 9/11 as a Turning Point in International Law at the Institute).

She also reports on her time as head of a Max Planck research group that worked on an interdisciplinary basis on questions of the democratic legitimacy of ethical decisions in the field of biomedicine, thus laying the foundation for her current research in the field of artificial intelligence regulation. Other topics include the fruitful scientific exchange at the Institute during this period, the compatibility of science and family life, the promotion of female scientists, and the role that (international) law can and should play in disruptive times.

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Dissertation: “Menschenrechte als Maßstab für das globale Steuersystem” by Dr. Silke Weller

Dr Silke Weller’s dissertation entitled “Menschenrechte als Maßstab für das globale Steuersystem” (“Human Rights as a Benchmark for the Global Tax System”) has been published in the Jus Internationale et Europaeum series by Mohr Siebeck in January 2026.

The extraterritorial effects of tax systems have been a constant feature of the international political agenda since the publication of the Panama Papers. Silke Weller – former doctoral candidate and member of the chair’s team – examines how phenomena in international tax policy should be assessed in terms of human rights and what implications could result from a ‘humanisation’ of this policy area.

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New Publication: “International Cooperation under the Human Right to Science” by Prof Dr Silja Voeneky and Gizem Demir

Prof. Dr. Silja Voeneky and her research assistant Gizem Demir have published an article entitled “International Cooperation under the Human Right to Science”. The article appears in the anthology Human Rights in Science, edited by Samantha Besson, published by Edward Elgar Publishing in 2025. In their chapter (Chapter 7), Voeneky and Demir analyse whether and to what extent the human right to science can justify international cooperation obligations, in particular an obligation to transfer technology – with a particular focus on the areas of bioprospecting and artificial intelligence.