(*July 3, 1945 † July 14, 2024)
Thomas Bruha was a legal cosmopolitan who passionately advocated throughout his life—and especially in his scholarly works—for a liberal, rules-based international order founded on multilateralism and a united Europe. Born in July 1945, he did not personally experience the horrors of World War II, but his political maturation was decisively shaped by the “Never Again” principle symbolized by the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the European integration process, and the German Basic Law. This “Never Again” was anything but self-evident amid the escalating East-West conflict and the Cold War, a situation that persists to this day.
Thomas Bruha studied law in Münster, Lausanne, and Geneva, displaying an early curiosity about international matters which he further pursued during postdoctoral studies at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom). His academic career began at the renowned Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and as a university assistant at the University of Giessen under Heinhard Steiger. Steiger, a renowned expert in international and European law as well as a historian of international law, supervised Bruha’s developmentally inspired, theoretically demanding dissertation titled “Die Definition der Aggression. Faktizität und Normativität des UN-Konsensbildungsprozesses der Jahre 1968 bis 1974. Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Strukturanalyse des Völkerrechts,” published in 1980 by Duncker & Humblot.
Thomas Bruha always combined academic ambition with a practical perspective on the effectiveness of scholarly ideas. He found an ideal working environment as a research officer at the Liechtenstein Institute and as an international law advisor to the Liechtenstein government. However, the majority of his work as a scholar and university teacher took place in Hamburg, with a family base in Husum. From 1993 until his retirement in 2011, he was a professor of public law, particularly international and European law, at the University of Hamburg. There, he also served as the deputy managing director of the Institute for International Affairs, program director at the Europa-Kolleg Hamburg, and a member of the board of the Institute for European Integration. His enthusiastic and inspiring commitment left an indelible mark on the Kolleg’s work. Along with colleagues from the faculties of law and economics and social sciences, he significantly shaped the graduate program “Integrationsforschung,” funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Approximately 45 doctoral candidates successfully completed their projects, and the Hamburg School of European Law contributed many impulses to the increasingly intense European constitutional discourse around the turn of the millennium (see, for example, Thomas Bruha/Joachim Jens Hesse/Carsten Nowak, Welche Verfassung für Europa? Erstes Interdisziplinäres “Schwarzkopf-Kolloquium” zur Verfassungsdebatte in der Europäischen Union, Baden-Baden 2001).
One of Thomas Bruha’s cherished projects at the Europa-Kolleg was the postgraduate program “Master of European Studies,” initiated under his leadership in 1998 and integrated into the still popular “Master of European and European Legal Studies” program in 2009. Kind, open, and always approachable, he became a highly respected academic mentor to new generations of students. Well-connected internationally, he ensured an impressive “Flying Faculty,” combining academic excellence with expertise from European institutions. “His” students maintained lively contact even after graduation, and regular alumni meetings, especially in the new member states of the expanded Union, were very popular. Thomas Bruha’s work was not confined to Europe. From September 2011 to December 2012, he served as co-dean at the China-EU Law School in Beijing and continued to return as a lecturer after his deanship ended.
As a co-editor, Thomas Bruha was responsible for the “Archiv des Völkerrechts” for many years. He also dedicated considerable time and effort to the German Society for the United Nations e.V., becoming its deputy chairman in 1999 and taking over as chairman from Christoph Zöpel in 2007. He served on the society’s presidium, most recently confirmed by election in October 2023, until his death. In all his roles and fields of activity, the researcher and university teacher Thomas Bruha was a voice of considerable influence. His voice fell silent shortly after his 79th birthday on July 14, 2024, but it continues to resonate as a pressing reminder in the face of multiple contemporary crises in international relations: To secure law and multilateralism, “the institutions of the world community must also address the legitimate security interests of states (and their citizens) regarding new threats. If they do not, prevention will be carried out bypassing the United Nations. At the same time, war returns as a means of politics, in language and action” (“Neue Kriege”: Neues Völkerrecht? – Wissenschaft & Frieden (wissenschaft-und-frieden.de). We wish to continue listening to Thomas Bruha and honor his memory.
Prof. Dr. Markus Kotzur, LL.M. (Duke Univ.), University of Hamburg
