Ralf Michaels
Professor of Law
Ralf Michaels is an expert in comparative law and conflict of laws. His current research focuses mainly on three issues: the role of domestic courts in globalization, the potential of conflict of laws as a theory of global legal fragmentation, and the status and relevance of non-state law. He is the editor or co-editor of two special volumes of the American Journal of Comparative Law ("Beyond the State ? Rethinking Private Law," 2008, also published as a book with Mohr/Siebeck; and "Legal Origins," 2009), as well as a book and a journal issue on conflict of laws ("Conflict of Laws in a Globalized World", Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007; and Transdisciplinary Conflicts, Law & Contemp. Probs. 2008). In addition, he has authored numerous articles and lectured widely on all three topics.
Michaels studied law at the Universities of Passau and Cambridge, U.K. While at Duke, he has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Panthéon/Assas (Paris 2), Princeton, Pennsylvania, and Toronto; he has also held senior research fellowships at Harvard and Princeton, as well as the American Academy in Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Private Law in Hamburg.
