Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Katharina Boele-Woelki was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Pretoria on April 15, 2021.
BIOGRAPHY WITH REFERENCES TO SOUTH AFRICAN LAW
Katharina Boele-Woelki studied law at the Georg-August University of Göttingen and the Free University of Berlin from 1975 to 1979. She received her doctorate from the Free University of Berlin in 1982.
From 1995 to 2015, she was Professor of Private International Law, Comparative Law and Family Law at Utrecht University. In 2001, she founded the Commission for European Family Law (CEFL) and in 2007 the Utrecht Center for European Family Law Research (UCERF). On October 1, 2015, she was appointed president of Bucerius Law School. She holds the Claussen-Simon Endowed Chair in Comparative Law at the law school.
In this context, Prof. Boele-Woelki has a close connection to South African law. Among other things, she is a co-editor of South African journals. She was an adjunct professor at the University of the Western Cape and currently holds this position at the University of Stellenbosch.
Katharina Boele-Woelki has already received honorary doctorates from Uppsala University, the University of Lausanne, the University of Antwerp and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's Anneliese Maier Research Award. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Hague Academy of International Law and the Academy of Sciences in Hamburg.
KATHARINA BOELE-WOELKI HONORED IN PRETORIA
The Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria, Elsabe Schoeman, praises Katharina Boele-Woelki as an "internationally recognized leading academic authority in the field of comparative law, family law and private international law." She particularly highlights the fact that Prof. Boele-Woelki was the first woman to be elected President of the International Academy of Comparative Law in 2014.
She also said that the University of Pretoria was proud to award this honorary doctorate, as Katharina Boele-Woelki has contributed her knowledge, expertise and scholarly commitment to the University of Pretoria's Faculty of Law for many years in order to promote the study of comparative law in South Africa and across the African continent.
The university community extends its sincere congratulations to Katharina Boele-Woelki!
