Thomas Abeltshauser

Thomas Eduard Abeltshauser (born January 13, 1954 in Bremen ) is a German lawyer specializing in management liability, business contract drafting, liability of the liberal professions, international legal transactions in the field of civil and commercial law . Until 2008, he was a professor at the Leibniz University in Hanover, where he held the chair for civil law , international private law , comparative law and legal professional practice.

Abeltshauser founded the ADVO certificate at the Law Faculty of Leibniz University Hannover, a further study program for lawyer-related legal training. He held the first German legal career fair in Hanover and repeated it several times. In addition, he participated in various legislative projects in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including as an expert for the development of a civil and commercial code for Bosnia and Herzegovina and also as an expert for the reform of economic laws in Tajikistan .

His academic interest focuses on national and international corporate and corporate law , comparative law , legal sociology and the Europeanization of private law systems . Above all, he deals with the civil and criminal liability of corporate managers and supervisory boards, with the debate about corporate governance and the increasing self-regulation of social subsystems.

Abeltshauser resigned from office due to criminal proceedings and was sentenced to three years imprisonment in 68 cases by the commercial criminal chamber of the Hildesheim Regional Court for corruption . Abeltshauser had admitted that between 1998 and 2005 he had received payments totaling 184,000 euros from a doctoral agency for the supervision of 68 doctoral students . Around 2,000 euros were paid for accepting a doctoral student for supervision; Abeltshauser received the same amount again when he completed his doctorate . In order to disguise his secondary employment, he had not applied for a permit from the university and stated his wife as the recipient of the payment on the invoices. As part of a so-called deal , the court had promised him a maximum of three years' imprisonment in the event that a confession was made. At his own suggestion, Abeltshauser is now donating the illegally accepted funds to charitable organizations (decision of the Hamburg Regional Court of July 28, 2009).

The criminal proceedings led to around 100 further investigations against university professors who had worked with the same agency. After they became known, these investigative proceedings led to a considerable crisis of confidence in the German doctoral system. The Hanover District Court acquitted several doctoral students from the charge of aiding and abetting bribery. However, these criminal decisions have no direct relevance to the administrative issue of the possible withdrawal of the doctoral degree concerned. However, on May 31, 2010, the Hanover Administrative Court ruled in favor of the doctoral students. There was no influence on the doctoral process on the part of Prof. A., the examination procedures were more materially legal, nor were there any indications that the doctoral students were aware of any cash payments. Grossly negligent behavior should also be ruled out (judgment of the VG Hannover dated May 31, 2010). This judgment was confirmed by the Lüneburg Higher Administrative Court in 2011 and is now legally binding. According to the OVG Lüneburg, there were no indications that the dissertations of the doctoral students concerned had been written in an inadmissible form. There was also no inadmissible influence on the examination commission (OVG Lüneburg AktZ: 2 LA 333/10 - 227/10 and 348/10 - 350/10).

literature

• Concept of business and public interest. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main / Bern 1982, ISBN 3-8204-7005-0 .
• Structural alternatives for a European corporate constitution: A comparative study of the 5th EC directive proposal under company law. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-06898-X .
• Conductor liability in corporation law: On the duty of care and loyalty of company managers in German and US corporation law. Heymanns, Cologne / Berlin / Bonn / Munich 1998, ISBN 3-452-23807-5 .

Web links

• Website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Law professor admits acceptance of doctoral students for money ( Memento of March 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
2. ↑ Trade in doctoral degrees: three years imprisonment for a corrupt law professor. In: Spiegel Online . April 2, 2008, accessed June 10, 2018 . 
3. ↑ http://www.taz.de/Doktortitel-gegen-Gefaelligkeiten/!15232/ .
4. ↑ ap / kami / gr: verdict: sex professor has to be behind bars for three years. In: welt.de . April 2, 2008, accessed October 7, 2018 . 
5. ↑ 100 professors are said to have sold doctoral degrees , Rheinische Post dated August 24, 2009 ( memento of the original dated August 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Jochen Leffers, On greasy paths to the doctorate , Spiegel-Online from 23 August 2009