- Università di Trento

Curriculum vitae

Dr. JensWoelk

Ricercatore confermato
di Diritto Costituzionale Comparato

 

Name and position:

Jens Woelk is presently Research Associate and Lecturer (Ricercatoreconfermato) in Comparative Constitutional Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Trento, and Senior Research Advisor at the European Academy, Bozen/Bolzano, Italy (Dept. “Minorities and Autonomies”).

Areas of expertise:

Jens Woelk is teaching courses in comparative constitutional law, comparative administrative law and European Union Law. His main fields of interest in research are comparative constitutional law, especially federalism/regionalism, minority-issues and South Eastern Europe, as well as the constitutional law of the European Union.

Background and education:

After his graduation in law at the University of Regensburg, Bavaria, he continued to work there as a Research Assistant to the Chair of Comparative Public Law and European Community Law (Prof. Dr. Rainer Arnold) and received his PhD in Comparative Constitutional Law (thesis on constitutional principles of co-operation in federal and regional systems).

In 1994 he passed the Bavarian Bar examination and received his admission as lawyer at the District Court in Regensburg. From 1994 to 2000 he worked as a Senior Researcher at the European Academy Bozen/Bolzano, since 1996 as the coordinator of the Research department “Minorities and Autonomies”.

Specific South Eastern European Experience:

Bosnia-Herzegovina

February 2000

OSCE-Conference on Constitution and the Democratic Control of the Armed Forces

Hungary (Budapest)

March 2000

Master on Minority Rights; Lectures on Autonomy and Minority-Protection

All CEEC

September 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003

Lecturer at the Summer Academy, Bressanone, Italy
"Trans-National Regionalism and Minority Protection in Europe. A Challenge for Eastern Enlargement"?      
“Regions and Minorities in a Greater Europe”

Italy

since 1999

Member of the Research Group of the University of Trento on Eastern Enlargement of the European Union

Serbia

March 2001

Study visit to Serbia (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Subotica), various presentations at the University of Novi Sad and the Open University of Subotica

Bosnia-Herzegovina

February 2002

Short-Term Expert, EU-GTZ project “Support of the Common Institutions of the State of Bosnia-Herzegovina”

Bosnia-Herzegovina

January 2003

Short-Term Expert, EU-GTZ project “Support of the Common Institutions of the State of Bosnia-Herzegovina”

Western Balkans

February to July 2004

Expert, study for the EU Commission: “Re-enforcement of the Rule of Law in the Western Balkans. Division of competencies and interrelations between courts, prosecutors, the police, the executive and legislative powers in the Western Balkans countries (Cards strategic studies 2003)”

 

Since 2001

Member of the Scientific Committee and Coordinator (for the Law Faculty) as well as lecturer in the Master programme “Comparative Local Development”, University of Trento

 

Current projects:

Debate on constitutional reforms in the federal systems of Austria, Germany and Switzerland

Constitutional transformation processes in South Eastern Europe, esp. decentralization and local self-government reforms

 

Main publications:

Books:

Einführung in die italienische Rechtssprache / Introduzioneall'italianogiuridico, Lehrbuch für (deutschsprachige) Studenten der Rechtswissenschaften, with S. Cavagnoli, Series "Rechtssprache des Auslands", C.H.Beck, München, 1997, (2. ed. 2003)

Konfliktregelung und Kooperation im italienischen und deutschen Verfassungsrecht: "Lealecollaborazione" und Bundestreue im Vergleich, 1. ed., Nomos-Publishers, Baden-Baden 1999. 367 pp. (Series "EthnicMinorities and Regional Autonomies", European AcademyBolzano/Bozen, 01)

1992: Ende eines Streits. Zehn Jahre Streitbeilegung im Südtirolkonflikt zwischen Italien und Österreich, SiglindeClementi/Jens Woelk (eds.), Nomos-Verl.-Ges., Baden-Baden 2003, 249 pp.

 

Over 30 publications in the fields of comparative constitutional law, regionalism, federalism, and minority issues:

Südtirol: ein Lehrbeispiel für Konfliktlösung?, Die Friedenswarte 1/2001

Kulturelle Vielfalt und staatliche Einheit. Das italienische Rahmengesetz zum Schutz historischer Sprachminderheiten, in: Jahrbuch für Italienisches Recht 14 (2001), pp. 289 – 302

Il riordino territoriale dei Comuni in Germania, with F. Palermo, in: AMMINISTRARE / a. XXXI, n. 3, December 2001, pp. 423 – 484

From Ethnic Minority Protection to Cohabitation, in: Agency of Local Democracy Subotica (ed.), Essays on Regionalisation. A collection of reports submitted at the International Conference: Regionalisation in Southeast Europe – Comparative Analysis and Perspectives, Subotica 2001, pp. 107 - 128 (Serbian translation: Odzastitepravamanjina do suzivota, in: Ogledi o Regionalizaciji, pp. 107 - 128)

Minderheitenschutz durch territoriale Autonomie: "Reservate" oder nachhaltige Integrationsprozesse?, in: Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismusforschung (ed.), Jahrbuch des Föderalismus 2002. Föderalismus, Subsidiarität und Regionen in Europa, Baden-Baden, NOMOS, 2002, pp. 117 – 137

Diritti di cittadinanza e autonomia nel contesto europeo, in A. Di Michele, G. Pallaver, F. Palermo (eds.), 1992: Fine di un conflitto. 10 anni dalla chiusura della questione sudtirolese”, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2003, pp. 217 – 246

Grenzüberschreitender Regionalismus als Konfliktlösungsinstrument? Die Entwicklung der Brennerkooperation, with F. Palermo,in: Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismusforschung (ed.), Jahrbuch des Föderalismus 2003. Föderalismus, Subsidiarität und Regionen in Europa, Baden-Baden, NOMOS, 2003, pp. 381 – 393

No Representation Without Recognition. The Right to Political Participation of (National) Minorities, with F. Palermo, Journal of European Integration, 2003, vol. 25, pp. 225 – 247

Federalism and consociationalism as tools for state-(re)-construction? Experiences from Bosnia and Herzegovina, in G. Alan Tarr, Robert F. Williams, Joseph Marko (eds.), Federalism, Subnational Constitutions and the Protection of Minorities, Greenwood-Praeger, Westport Connecticut - London, 2004, pp. 177 – 198