Research Interests
Private Law, Criminal Law, European Law
Research Area(s)
Europe (especially: EU, Germany, France)
Profile
Friederike Gehrke is a PhD Research Candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, affiliated with the Max Planck Research Group ‘Transformations in Private Law: Culture, Climate, and Technology’ led by Dr. Mareike Schmidt. For her research at the Max Planck Institute, Friederike Gehrke is on leave of absence from her position as a judge at the Local Criminal Court of Berlin.
During her professional career and her studies, Friederike Gehrke has always focused on various fields of law as well as its international context and interdisciplinary implications:
Friederike Gehrke studied German and French law in Potsdam and at the University Paris X Nanterre, and passed her Licence en Droit in 2004 and her First State Exam in 2007. She then studied at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, obtaining an LL.M. in European Law in 2008. Beside her studies, she took part in interdisciplinary and international extracurricular programs of the Hertie-Foundation and German National Merit Foundation.
From 2008 to 2010 she did her legal traineeship at the Superior Court of Justice of Berlin, with clerkships at, among other places, the German Consulate General Hong Kong, Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and the Civil District Court of Berlin. After being a probationary judge from 2011 to 2015 at the Local Criminal Court, the Social Court, and the Public prosecution Office in Berlin, Friederike Gehrke has been appointed for life as judge at the Local Criminal Court of Berlin. Since then, she was on secondments at the Senate Administration of Justice, Consumer Protection and Anti-Discrimination in Berlin (from 2017 to 2020), the Secretariat of the Bundesrat (from 2020 to 2021) and the Senate Administration of Justice and Consumer Protection in Berlin (from 2023 to 2024), she completed her judicial testing the Superior Court of Justice of Berlin from 2021 to 2022, and was on a training period in the Local Criminal Court of Burgos, Spain, in 2016 and on a study trip to the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in 2023, both with the European Judicial Training Network.
Why Law and Anthropology?
Judicial practitioners are facing contexts and questions of cultural diversity in an increasing number of cases, referring also to the intersection of law and anthropology. Being aware of diverse cultural backgrounds and perceptions of all involved parties, understanding possible cultural implications on law, relating to empiric research and deepening knowledge on the handling of cultural practices and symbols in the legal system can broaden the view and might help to refine legal decisions.