Johannes Masing (born 9 January 1959 in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

) is a German

jurisprudent Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

public law Public law is the part of law that governs relations and affairs between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that ...

and former

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

of the

Federal Constitutional Court of Germany The Federal Constitutional Court ( ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme court, supreme constitutional court for the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, Basic Law ...

Career

Between 1979 and 1986, Masing studied law and philosophy at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

as well as Piano at the Freiburg Conservatory of Music (Music teacher diploma) and the

State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart The State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart is a professional school for musicians and performing artists in Stuttgart, Germany. Founded in 1857, it is one of the oldest schools of its kind in Germany. It is one of the oldest and ...

(Artistic final exam). In 2002, Masing was a visiting scholar at the

University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (branded as Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparati ...

, Ann Arbor/USA. Since 2007, he has been a full professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Freiburg. A nominee of the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

, on 15 February 2008 he was elected to succeed Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem as sitting Justice of the

in the court's first senate. He was inaugurated on 2 April 2008 and is chiefly responsible for constitutional complaints concerning data protection, privacy and the right to demonstrate. In a unanimous 2014 decision by the eight-judge First Senate on abolishing a law allowing companies to be passed from generation to generation tax free, Masing – alongside fellow members Reinhard Gaier and Susanne Baer – issued a supplementary decision saying the judgment should have included wording to ensure that revised tax rules did not undercut the basic purpose of inheritance law, which was to hinder excessive concentration of wealth among a privileged few: “The inheritance tax serves not only to generate tax revenue. Rather it is also an instrument of the state to hinder disproportionate accumulation of wealth from generation to generation solely as a result of origin or personal connection.” He was elected a member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

in 2021.

Other activities

* German Academic Scholarship Foundation, Board of Trustees *

Schwetzingen Festival The Schwetzingen Festival (German: Schwetzinger Festspiele, now Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele) is an early summer festival of opera and other classical music presented each year from May to early June in Schwetzingen, Germany. In 1952, the broadca ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees

Recognition

*2008 – Gay-Lussac-Humboldt Prize for Franco-German Research Cooperation

External links

Bundesverfassungsgericht -- Justice Masings's website

References

1959 births Living people 21st-century German judges German legal scholars People from Wiesbaden Justices of the Federal Constitutional Court Members of Academia Europaea {{Germany-law-bio-stub

Career

Other activities

Recognition

See also

External links

References