Academic Career
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Becker was appointed Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy in 2002 and has since held this position, together with a honorary professorship at the Faculty of Law at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. He received his Doctorate in Law in 1989 from the University of Würzburg and was, by the same, awarded his Venia Legendi in 1994. Moreover, in 1991, Ulrich Becker received his LL.M. in Comparative European and International Law Studies from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy. Prior to his appointment by the Max Planck Society as Director, namely from 1996, he had held the Chair of Public Law, German and European Social Law at the University of Regensburg. During the winter term of 1999/2000 he was an Emile Noël Fellow at Harvard Law School and taught as a visiting professor in Leuven, Beijing, Porto Alegre and Tokyo. Ulrich Becker is also a Fellow of the Academia Europaea.
Research Foci
Prof. Dr. Becker’s research is dedicated to the key questions of national and European social law. His research foci include the development of social rights in the European Union, as well as the modernisation of the German social benefits systems, health law and the impact of migration for the welfare state.
Editorships
Prof. Dr. Becker is the editor of various social law publication series (incl. Schriften zum Sozialrecht, Studien aus dem Max-Planck-Institut für Sozialrecht und Sozialpolitik) and co-editor of social law journals (incl. Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialrecht, Zeitschrift für europäisches Sozial- und Arbeitsrecht, Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Arbeits- und Sozialrecht).
Board Memberships
Prof. Dr. Becker is a board member of scientific associations such as Gesellschaft für Rechtsvergleichung [German Comparative Law Society] and Deutscher Sozialrechtsverband [German Association for Social Law] as well as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies (FRIAS) and the Tenure Board at the University of Regensburg. In addition, he is on the advisory board of other research institutions such as Forschungsnetzwerk Alterssicherung der Deutschen Rentenversicherung [Research Network on Pensions of the German Pension Fund], Institut für europäische Verfassungswissenschaften [Institute for European Constitutional Sciences] at the University of Hagen, and Deutscher Verein für Versicherungswissenschaft [German Insurance Science Association] as well as of various professional journals (incl. the International Social Security Review, the scientific journal Shehui baozhang yanjin' [Social Security Studies] in Beijing, and ZSFH/SGB Sozialrecht in Deutschland und Europa [Social Law in Germany and Europe]). Ulrich Becker is also founding member of Deutsches Insitut für Interdisziplinäre Sozialpolitikforschung (DIFIS) [German Institute for Interdisciplinary Welfare State Research].
