Draft:Thomas M. J. Möllers

Thomas M. J. Möllers (born January 25, 1962 in Mainz) is a German legal scholar.

Life
Möllers studied law at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Université Bourgogne de Dijon. He conducted research for his doctorate under Walther Hadding and his habilitation under Wolfgang Fikentscher as a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and at the European University Institute in Florence. After his habilitation on the subject of "Legal protection in environmental and liability Law" at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Möllers became a full professor of civil law, commercial law, European law, international private law, and comparative law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Augsburg on 1 July 1996.

His research focuses on German and European civil law with its links to legal methodology as well as German and European commercial law, in particular capital market law, corporate law and competition law with its comparative law connections. He pays particular attention to the laws of France, Italy, the USA, and the People's Republic of China. To date, he has worked on over 450 publications on his main areas of research, including around 50 monographs, conference proceedings and extensive commentaries. Moreover, Möllers has given around 200 academic lectures in Germany and abroad.

Möllers has held visiting and research professorships at the universities of Sydney, Pittsburgh, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Pepperdine, Hobart, Washington, D.C., Beijing, Lyon, and Lanzhou.

Research– National and international
One of the foundations of law is legal methodology. Möllers understands methodology as a theory of legitimation and argumentation that obliges the lawyer to justify his decision. In contrast to the works of the 20th century, he perceives his methodology as a "modern methodology" because he supplements it with modern reasoning approaches, for example in the area of legal sources ("pronouncements by authorities as secondary sources of law"), the inclusion of consequences and economic considerations, as well as argumentation figures for concretization and construction. To him it is of impotence to uncover deficits in reasoning, for example in further development of the law, and to extend methodology into a meta-methodology.

The book Juristische Arbeitstechnik und wissenschaftliches Arbeiten (Legal Working Technique and Academic Work) was first published in 2001 and developed standards for the academic work of a lawyer. It was therefore an ideal basis when the universities integrated academic work into the first state examination for the first time following a reform of the legal profession. When the plagiarism of former Defense Minister zu Guttenberg was uncovered, the criteria developed by Möllers were used.

Möllers has helped shape European capital market law with more than 150 publications. For example, with the justification of an erroneous ad hoc announcement as immoral damage to the investor with the possibility of rescinding the contract. He has scientifically investigated economic scandals involving Volkswagen and Wirecard.

There is an emphasis on legal enforcement in commercial law, a topic that must be considered across the board for antitrust, competition, capital market, corporate and consumer protection law. A common core project also served this purpose. The various legal institutions for the enforcement of rights were introduced by the European Union with the Directive 2020/1828 on representative actions. More recently, Möllers has been working on sustainability in capital market law and the interactions between psychology, environmental and capital market law.

Möllers has now supervised more than 100 doctoral students, most of whom are working as lawyers or judges. His student Isabella Brosig-Hoschka has held a professorship for private commercial law and international business at Kempten University of Applied Sciences since 2022. Furthermore, he was the supervisor to Philipp Maume on his tenure-track.

Lecutre – National and international
Together with the honorary professors Andreas Früh, Jan-Hendrik Röver, Christoph Zeitler and the lecturers Franz Clemens Leisch, Steffen Nolte, Nadja Groß, Theodor Seitz, Christoph Knapp, and Maximilian Merwald, he is responsible for business law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Augsburg.

Part of Möllers' international commitment is the Augsburg Summer Program, which takes place in Augsburg every summer. This program provides German and international students with knowledge of European business law through English-language courses and exercises. Möllers' chair also organizes an exchange program with six US-American universities (George Washington University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Pepperdine University, Santa Clara University, Chicago-Kent College of Law, University of Pittsburgh) and Peking University in Beijing every winter semester. These cooperations enable students to study at the respective university for one semester free of charge with the opportunity to satisfy the requirements for an LL.M. degree.

Administration
Möllers has been Managing Director of the Center for European Legal Studies (CELOS) since 1996 and spokesman of the Augsburg Center for Global Economic Law and Regulation (ACELR) since 2007. He manages the Augsburg Research Center of European and Anglo-American Law (AREA) and the Research Center of Innovation and Legal Studies between China and Europe (RICE). He is also a member of the advisory board of the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC), a cooperation between the University of Augsburg, the Technical University of Munich, George Washington University and the Max Planck Society. Möllers is Vice Dean for International Relations at the Faculty of Law at the University of Augsburg.

Honors & Third-party funds

 * Appointment as permanent visiting professor at the Lanzhou University of Political Science and Law (LUPL) in Lanzhou.
 * Appointment as permanent visiting professor at the China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) in Beijing.
 * Membership of the Academia Europaea (The Academy of Europe), Law Section, based in London.
 * Membership of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Section Social Sciences, Law and Economics, based in Salzburg.
 * 2016-2020: Jean Monnet Center of Excellence at the University of Augsburg "European Integration - Rule of Law and Enforcement (INspiRE)".
 * 2010: Awarded the Ad Personam Jean Monnet Chair by the European Commission.
 * 2005: Awarded a Jean Monnet Chair for European Corporate, Capital Markets and Competition Law by the EU Commission.
 * Third-party funded projects, including the EU, the DAAD, Fulbright, KAS, the MPI for Intellectual Property, Competition Law and Tax Law, the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Kurt and Felicitas Viermetz Foundation.
 * Regular expert or expert reviewer for the EU, German Bundestag, BaFin, Science Council, DFG, DAAD, Studienstiftung and KAS, among others.
 * Member or reviewer of various legal journals: ZGR, ECFR, Banking& Finance L.Rev., International Political Rev., JUS CIVILE, DBW, LMK, WuB.

Membership and functionen in companies and associations

 * He has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Deutsche Bundesbank's Money and Currency Foundation since July 1, 2015, and a permanent member of the Board of Trustees since 2009.
 * He is spokesman for the German Association of University Lawyers (DHV) in Augsburg.
 * Möllers is a regional spokesman for the German American Lawyers Association (DAJV).
 * Functioned for many years as an of counsel to several law firms.

Publications

 * Juristische Methodenlehre. 1.–4. Auflage. C.H. Beck, München 2021, ISBN 978-3-406-76149-2. Übersetzung der 2. Auflage ins Englische: Hart Publishing, Oxford u. a. 2020, ISBN 978-3-406-74397-9. Übersetzung der 4. Auflage ins Chinesische: Peking University    Press, Peking 2022, ISBN 978-7-301-33042-5.
 * Juristische Arbeitstechnik und wissenschaftliches Arbeiten. 1.–10. Auflage. C.H. Beck, München 2021, ISBN 978-3-8006-5693-6. Übersetzung der 9. Auflage ins Chinesische: Peking University Press, ISBN 978-7-301-30286-6.
 * Enforcing Consumer and Capital Market Law in Europe. The Diesel Emissions Scandal, Intersentia, Cambridge 2020, ISBN 978-1-78068-964-7, (hrsg. mit Beate Gsell).
 * Kölner Kommentar zum WpHG. 2. Auflage. Carl Heymanns, 2014, ISBN 978-3-452-27587-5. (hrsg. mit Heribert Hirte).
 * Mitherausgeber der Schriftenreihen:
 * Augsburger Rechtsstudien
 * Augsburg Center for Global Economic Law and Regulation (ACELR)
 * Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC)