Hartmut Aden

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Aden is Professor of German and European Public Law, Public Policy and Public Administration at Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin), where he has served since 2009. He currently holds the position of Vice President for Research and previously served as Data Protection Officer (2011-2020). A founding member of the Berlin Institute for Safety and Security Research (FÖPS Berlin), Aden was Deputy Director from 2016-2020 and academic director of the Master International Security Management program.

His education includes legal studies at Georg-August University Göttingen and Leibniz University Hanover (1985-1991), Diplôme d'Études approfondies from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris (1993), and a PhD from Leibniz University Hanover (1997) on police policy in Europe. He passed state legal exams in Lower Saxony (1991) and Hamburg (1997).

Aden's research focuses on intersecting domains of public law, security governance, and European integration. Primary interests include multi-level legal systems, police cooperation frameworks, data protection regulations in law enforcement contexts, and accountability mechanisms in public administration. His work critically examines tensions between security policies and fundamental rights, especially regarding surveillance technologies and border controls.

His recent publications demonstrate strong emphasis on police governance reform, technological impacts on law enforcement, and EU security integration. Article analyses reveal recurrent themes: constitutional safeguards in policing, data transparency requirements, discrimination prevention mechanisms, and comparative studies of European security architectures. Methodologically, he combines legal analysis with policy evaluation and ethnographic approaches.

Key institutional roles include founding the Research Institute for Public and Private Security, leading research projects like MEDIAN (2018-2021) on identity verification technologies and FindMyBike (2017-2019) on stolen vehicle tracking. He maintains active collaborations through research networks including the European Working Group on Normative Systems and COST Action on Police Stops.