Dirk Hanschel

Dirk Hanschel is a Professor of German, European, and International Public Law at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and a Max Planck Fellow leading the 'Environmental Rights in Cultural Context' research group at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. In 2021, he accepted a three-year guest professorship as the Martin Flynn Global Law Professor at the University of Connecticut (USA). His work focuses on environmental and human rights, particularly climate change litigation, and the anthropological dimensions of legal frameworks in contexts like indigenous communities affected by environmental degradation. He collaborates with scholars such as Richard Wilson and Joseph MacDougald on topics like the intersection of legal norms and local understandings of environmental justice.

His research explores how legal strategies, such as climate litigation, challenge traditional power structures and investigates whether state environmental norms align with grassroots perceptions of justice. He has previously held visiting roles at the University of Connecticut School of Law and engages in interdisciplinary studies at the nexus of law, anthropology, and environmental policy.