Mareike Schmidt

Mareike Schmidt is a Professor of Civil Law and Legal Didactics at the University of Hamburg and Head of the Max Planck Research Group "Transformations in Private Law: Culture, Climate, and Technology" at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle (Saale). She holds a doctorate (summa cum laude) from the University of Basel and an LL.M. from Tsinghua University. Her research focuses on cultural diversity in private law, legal anthropology, and legal methodology, with a particular emphasis on the interplay between cultural norms and legal application.

Education:

• LL.M., Tsinghua University (2008)
• Doctorate (summa cum laude), University of Basel (2012)
• Clerkship at Hanseatic Higher Regional Court (2013-2016)

Research interests span civil law, comparative law, cultural diversity, and legal didactics. Her work bridges theoretical and empirical approaches, particularly in analyzing how cultural contexts influence legal practices. Recent projects include studies on digital transformation and climate change impacts on private law, supported by the Volkswagen Foundation.

Awards include the Dr. Otto Schmidt Prize (2024), the Professor Walther Hug Prize (2013), and teaching awards from Basel (2011) and Hamburg (2017, 2018). She co-edits the Journal of Legal Didactics and contributes to the Rechts|Empirie blog.

Grants and collaborations include a Volkswagen Foundation-funded project on digital and climate-related legal transformations (2023) and a Käte Hamburger Center fellowship (2021/22). Her research group investigates cultural embedding in contract law and legal anthropology's role in modern legal scholarship.