Maximilian Pichl studied law and political science at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. He then worked as a legal policy officer for the human rights organization PRO ASYL e.V. His research focuses on critical legal theory, refugee and migration law, and police law. He is currently researching the constitutional reappraisal of the murder series of the "National Socialist Underground" (NSU) and the institutional changes in EU migration policy since the "Summer of Migration 2015".

He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Forum Recht and the Grundrechte-Report (Fundamental Rights Report) as well as an active member of the Netzwerk Migrationsrecht (Migration Law Network).

since 1/10 2021Substitute for the Professorship of Political Theory, Department of Social Sciences University of Kassel
18.06.2021Doctorate in Law (Dr. jur.), Goethe University Frankfurt am Main: Investigation in the Rule of Law. A descriptive-critical observation of the parliamentary investigation committees on the NSU murder series.
02/2021 - 09/2021Research Assistant in Public Law, Department of Law, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.
28.01.2021Doctorate in Economic and Social Sciences (Dr. rer. pol.), University of Kassel: Rechtskämpfe. A historical-materialist legal policy analysis of legal proceedings after the summer of migration.
Doctoral scholarship of the Hans Böckler Foundation.
since 2020Co-editor Report Recht gegen Rechts
2017 - 2021Research assistant Prof. Dr. Dr. Günter Frankenberg, Department of Law, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.
2017 - 2021Board of Directors of Bundesfachverband unbegleitete minderjährige Flüchtlinge e.V. (Federal Association of Unaccompanied Minor Refugees).
2015 - 2017Legal policy advisor PRO ASYL e.V.
2011 - 2018Editorial board member Forum Recht
2011 - 2014Student assistant in the DFG project "State Project Europe" at the Institute for Social Research Frankfurt am Main
2009 - 2012Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
2008 - 2014First State Examination in Law, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
Study scholarship Heinrich-Böll-Foundation
2004 - 2006Board of directors of the Rhineland-Palatinate student council
1998 - 2007Grammar school at the Römerkastell, A-levels
  • Critical Legal Theory
  • State Theory
  • Asylum and refugee law
  • Police Research
  • Association for Critical Social Research (AkG)
  • bordermonitoring.eu.
  • Federal Association of Unaccompanied Minor Refugees (BUMF)
  • Network Migration Law
  • Network for critical migration and border regime research (kritnet)
  • PRO ASYL e.V.
  • United Services Union, ver.di

Monographs

 

Collected volumes/editorials

 

Expert opinions and studies

 

Essays

  • Matthias Lehnert/Marei Pelzer/Maximilian Pichl (2021): Legal Struggles over European Refugee Law after the Summer of 2015, in Valeria Hänsel et al. (eds.): Border Regime IV. Von Moria bis Hanau - Brutalisierung und Widerstand, Berlin. In publication.
  • Sonja Buckel/Maximilian Pichl/Carolina Vestena (2021): Rechtskämpfe, in Journal of Cultural and Collective Studies, pp. 45 - 82.
  • Maximilian Pichl (2021): Vom Paria zur anwaltlichen Gegenmacht. A History of the German Asylum Lawyers, in: Critical Justice, pp. 17 - 30.
  • Maximilian Pichl/Eric von Dömming (2020): Authoritarian Staging and Reinterpretation - The Legal Policy of the "Alternative for Germany," in: Critical Justice 3/2020, pp. 299 - 310.
  • Moritz Elliesen/Maximilian Pichl (2020): Orbáns Durchmarsch, Europas Verantwortung, in: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik 9/2020, pp. 17 - 20.
  • Maxim Boennemann/Maximilian Pichl (2020): Postcolonial Legal Theory, in: Sonja Buckel/Andreas Fischer-Lescano/Ralph Christensen (eds.), New Theories of Law, 3rd edition, UTB: Tübingen, pp. 359 - 375.
  • Maximilian Pichl (2020): Interdisciplinarity - Social Theoretical Reflections on the Role of Legal Struggles, in: Sebastian Bretthauer et al. (eds.), Wandlungen im Öffentlichen Recht, Festschrift zu 60 Jahren Assistententagung Öffentliches Recht, Nomos: Baden-Baden, pp. 365 - 379.
  • Maximilian Pichl (2020): McKinseyization of the Asylum Process. The Role of Management Consultancies in the Neoliberal Transformation of the Asylum System, in Daniel Kersting/Marcel Leuoth (eds.), Der Begriff des Flüchtlings. Legal, Moral and Political Controversies, J.B. Metzler: Stuttgart, pp. 81 - 98.
  • Maximilian Pichl (2019): Constitution of false prophecies: the illiberal transformation of Hungary, in Günter Frankenberg/Helena Gárcia Alvar (eds.), Authoritarian Constitutionalism. Comparative Analysis and Critique, Elgar: Cheltenham/Northampton, pp. 240 - 263.
  • Maximilian Pichl (2019): Clarification in Parliament. Die NSU-Untersuchungsausschüsse im Vergleich, in Benjamin-Immanuel Hoff/Heike Kleffner/Maximilian Pichl/Martina Renner (eds.), Rückhaltlose Aufklärung, NSU, NSA, BND - Geheimdienste und Untersuchungsausschüsse zwischen Staatsversagen und Staatswohl, VSA Verlag: Hamburg, pp. 75 - 87.
  • Maximilian Pichl/Timo Tohidipur (2019): Commitment to active sea rescue. On the non-intended effects of Frontex's surveillance of the Mediterranean, in: this. (Ed.), At the borders of Europe and the law, Transcript: Bielefeld, pp. 177 - 208.
  • Maximilian Pichl (2019): Im Recht, in: Eva Berendsen/Katharina Rhein/Tom Uhlig (eds.), Extrem unbrauchbar. On Equating Left and Right, Verbrecher Verlag: Berlin, pp. 169 - 180.
  • Maximilian Pichl (2018): Polizei und Rechtsstaat: Über das Unvermögen, exekutive Gewalt einhegen, in Daniel Loick (ed.), Kritik der Polizei, Campus: Frankfurt am Main, pp. 101 -117.
  • Sonja Buckel/Maximilian Pichl (2018): Europe: the politics of the camps, in: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik 8/2018, pp. 9 - 12.

 

Newspaper articles

 

Lectures

  • Legal Struggles. Presentation at the panel Law and Justice in Geographical Perspective at the Geowoche of the German Geographical Society on 08.10.2021.
  • 70 Geneva Refugee Convention - a reason to celebrate? Lecture at the digital lecture series of the Medical Refugee Aid Bochum, Institute for Peacekeeping and International Humanitarian Law of the Ruhr University Bochum and medico international on 19.07.2021.
  • Legal Struggles. A historical-materialistic legal policy analysis. Lecture in the context of the lecture series "Law and Society of the Working Group on the Sociology of Law Freiburg on 10.06.2021.
  • Capitalism's Bodies, presentation at the Globinar of Sciences-po on 11.03.2021.
  • Politics of the Camps. Lecture at the Seebrücke Bonn on 05.02.2021.
  • Freedom before Security? Security before freedom? The relationship between two goods in the light of the Basic Law, discussion with Minister Anne Spiegel (MFFJIV-RLP), event of the Fridtjof Nansen Academy for Political Education on 24.09.2020.
  • Current developments in the jurisprudence of the European courts on migration law, presentation at the Refugee Law Clinic Jena training program on 20.06.2020.

 

Media/Interviews

  • 2021: Five years of the EU-Turkey Agreement: What next? Interview with Detektor.fm. on 23.03.2021.
  • 2021: Lübcke Investigation Committee: "Systematic Problems at the Office for the Protection of the Constitution Become Visible". Interview with Frankfurter Rundschau from 21.3.2021.
  • 2021: Camps like Moria are the result of political calculation. Neues Deutschland from 18.03.2021.
  • 2021: Five years of the EU-Turkey Agreement: Successful or failed? Tagesschau Online from 18.03.2021.
  • 2021: Experts consider hotspot system hardly reformable. Tagesspiegel of 18.03.2021.
  • 2021: No one is willing to respect the right of refugees. HR-Info on 18.03.2021.
  • 2021: The Moria Complex. Radio One on 18.03.2021.
  • 2020: Will Orban's insolence win? EU debates rule of law at special summit. Radio interview with SWR 2 on 1.10.2020.
  • 2020: Moria refugee camp: legal expert: "Refugees are denied the right to life". Radio interview with SRF 2 on 11.9.2020.
  • 2020: Your friend and helper? Black people and People of Color see themselves under general suspicion, as do the police. Newspaper interview with Das Parlament on 22.06.2020.
  • 2020: Germany shuts down because of Corona. Many refugees are no longer allowed to apply for asylum. Newspaper interview with Tagesspiegel on 18.3.2020.
  • 2020: Right-wing extremism. Not just a sideshow. Interview with the ZEIT on 26.2.2020.