Prof. Dr. Eva Pils officially receives Humboldt professorship

Chinese human rights specialist receives award in Berlin

On the evening of May 5, Prof. Dr. Eva Pils was officially awarded the most prestigious German research prize in Germany. She already started working as a Humboldt Professor in human rights and at the Research Center for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg (CHREN) at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) several months before. The legal expert and human rights advocate is the eleventh researcher to receive this special appointment at FAU.

“Thanks to the dedication of our researchers to research and teaching in the area of human rights, the FAU Research Center CHREN has already established a reputation across the whole of Europe,” says FAU President Joachim Hornegger. “With Prof. Dr. Eva Pils we have gained another distinguished legal expert who will undoubtedly prove a valuable asset for the Center and for human rights research at FAU. I am very pleased to welcome her once more officially to FAU as a new Humboldt professor.”

Human rights as a global issue

“As a global society, nowadays we have even more reason to research human rights in China, as on closer examination, the main issue is much broader than merely human rights in China: we cannot protect important political principles like human rights and democracy if we turn a blind eye to the development of legal systems in other countries,” explains Eva Pils.

Eva Pils began researching the defense of human rights in China more than 20 years ago. Her career has included time spent at University College London, where she completed her doctoral degree, New York University in the USA, the Chinese University Hongkong, where she was a co-founder of the Center for Rights and Justice, and King’s College in London.

As a lecturer, it is important for her that students understand law as a global subject and view legal orders in their various political and historical contexts.

New place of work, familiar colleagues

The Humboldt professor has already worked with colleagues from CHREN several times in the past: “Here at FAU, I really appreciate the collaboration between law, social sciences and the humanities. I am pleased to be able to research from now on at a place that lays such a strong focus on human rights.”