Hans-Jürgen Papier

Hans-Jürgen Papier (German pronunciation: [ˈpaːpi̯ɐ]; born 6 July 1943 in Berlin) is a German scholar of constitutional law and was President of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany from 2002 to 2010.

Hans-Jürgen Papier
Hans-Jürgen Papier giving a speech in 2014
8th President of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
In office 10 April 2002 – 16 March 2010
Preceded by	Jutta Limbach
Succeeded by	Andreas Voßkuhle
10th Vice President of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
In office 27 February 1998 – 10 April 2002
Preceded by	Otto Seidl
Succeeded by	Winfried Hassemer
Personal details
Born	(1943-07-06) 6 July 1943 Berlin, Germany
Nationality	Germany
Alma mater	Free University of Berlin

Three years after graduating from law school in 1967 with the first law state examination, Papier completed his Ph.D. studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. In 1971 he received the second law state examination. In 1973 he received his Habilitation on the basis of a second dissertation on questions concerning German constitutional law.

From 1974 onward Papier received tenure at the Universität Bielefeld and taught constitutional law. In 1992 he moved to Munich to teach German and Bavarian constitutional and administrative law as well as Public Social law at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität.

In 1998 Papier, a member of the conservative CSU party, became Vice President and Chair of the First Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. When President of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany Jutta Limbach retired from her position in 2002, Papier succeeded her.

Papier has often made public comments on questions of constitutional law, but has generally avoided commenting on other political questions. He made an exception to this rule after the elections of 2005 when he implored the parties to work hard not to lose the trust of the German electorate.