Dr. Anne Dewey began her legal studies in 2013 at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. There, she decided to specialize in IP and wrote her specialization thesis on the publishers' participation in collecting societies’ revenues. She attended the Université Paris Descartes (Paris V) as part of the Erasmus program. Due to her specialization and her internship in a law firm for art law, she developed a further interest in the interplay of culture and law. This lead to her employment as a student assistant at the "Institut für Informations-, Telekommunikations- und Medienrecht“ in Münster, where she also participated in the "Art Law Clinic“, and as a research assistant in an international corporate law firm in the field of IP. After successfully passing the bar exam in April 2019, she began working at the chair of Prof. Dr. Matthias Weller on the research project "Restatement of Restitution Rules" in August 2019. She finished her PhD thesis with the title "Gerecht und fair? Die Empfehlungspraxis des österreichischen Kunstrückgabebeirats im Lichte der Washingtoner Prinzipien" in May 2023. During her PhD, she received scholarships from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Stiftung Zeitlehren. In addition to her PhD, she worked on various projects in feminist legal studies. Since May 2023, she has been a legal trainee at the Kammergericht Berlin. 

Annika Dorn studied law at Humboldt University in Berlin and at the Università degli Studi di Roma „La Sapienza“ in Rome. She specialized in the field of intellectual property with a focus on copyright law. Annika discovered her interest in the area of Art and Cultural Heritage Law whilst working with Dr. Mara Wantuch-Thole at dtb Rechtsanwälte Berlin. In 2020 Annika joined the research project „Restatement of Restitution Rules“ as a research fellow and pursued a Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Weller. In 2022 she was a visiting scholar at Warwick University (Arts, Culture and Law Cluster). Since February 2024, she has been a legal trainee at the Kammergericht Berlin. Her thesis with the title „Just and fair ? - Der Umgang mit „Nazi-looted art“ im Vereinigten Königreich“ will be published this year. 

Dr. Charis Hahne studied law and art history at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and Uniwersytet Gdański in Poland (Erasmus+). She obtained a B.A. (2013) and M.A. degree (2016) in art history. After passing the First State Examination in 2018, she joined the research project “Restatement of Restitution Rules” at the chair of Prof. Matthias Weller in 2019. She finished her Ph.D. thesis with the title “Wege zur Gerechtigkeit bei ‘NS-Raubkunst’: Die heutige Restitutionspraxis im Lichte des alliierten Rückerstattungsrechts” in December 2023. During her Ph.D. project, she received a scholarship from the Gerda Henkel Stiftung. Her dissertation was awarded the prize of the Konrad Redeker Foundation for the best dissertation in public law at the law faculty of the University of Bonn in the academic year of 2023/2024. The dissertation was also honoured by the Ius Vivum Foundation. From 2022, she was a legal trainee at the Oberlandesgericht Köln, including stations at the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations in New York and the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. She passed the Second State Examination in March 2024.

Dr. Hannah Lehmann studied law at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. In 2019 she successfully passed the First State Examination. She was supported by a sholarship from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. She did her specialization in commercial law and took part in the Seminar by Prof. Dr. Matthias Weller regarding the art market and the protection of cultural assets. During and after her studies she worked as an intern and research assistant for the Vaillant Group (2019-2020) and for the law firm Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek (2020). In 2020, she joined the research project "Restatement of Restitution Rules" at the chair of Prof. Dr. Matthias Weller and pursued a PhD under his supervision.  For her PhD project, related to the Project, she received a scholarship of the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung für die Freiheit. She finished her PhD thesis with the title "Die schweizerische Restitutionspraxis im Lichte der Washingtoner Prinzipien" in December 2023. Since October 2023, she has been a legal trainee at the Landgericht Bonn.

Ole Nettels studied English and German law at University College London and the University of Cologne. From 2017 until 2022, he worked for Prof. Dr. Johanna Hey as a student research assistant in the area of taxation law. In 2019, he finished his LL.B. of English and German law and in 2022 successfully passed the first German state exam, specialising in intellectual property and copyright law. During his studies, he also completed the University of Cologne’s Certificate in United States Law. In 2019, he was awarded a study scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes). In 2022, he joined the research project “Restatement of Restitution Rules for Nazi-Confiscated Art” at the chair of Prof. Dr. Matthias Weller as a research fellow. The same year, he started working on his related PhD project under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Weller, for which he received an Exposé-scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation covering a six-month period. In 2023, Ole Nettels received a full PhD scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation for said project.

Dr. Tessa Scheller studied law at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg and at Universita degli Studi di Firenze in Florence (Erasmus exchange). After passing the First State Examination in Freiburg, she spent her legal traineeship (Referendariat) in Berlin/Brandenburg inter alia at the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the Cultural Foundation of the Federal States and a law firm specialized in art law. In 2017 Tessa passed her Second State Examination in law. Subsequently, she studied “Art History: Collecting and Provenance in an International Context” at the University of Glasgow and received an M.Sc. in 2018. In the course of the master’s program Tessa also worked as an intern for the Smithsonian Provenance Research Initiative at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Between 2019 and 2022, Tessa worked as a research fellow on the research project "Restatement of Restitution Rules". At the same time, she pursued a Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Weller on a thesis entitled “Die niederländische Restitutionskommission – Eine Vermessung der Spruchpraxis am Maßstab der Washingtoner Prinzipien”, which she completed in spring 2024 with a doctorate in law. Since January 2023, Tessa has been working as a legal counsel in the cultural sector in Berlin.

Jordan Schmeller studied law at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and Universidade de Lisboa in Portugal (Erasmus exchange) from 2017 to 2023. During his studies, he successfully participated in the University of Bonn’s Foreign Legal Studies Program in English. Additionally, he took part in the university’s Honor’s Program which aims to support outstanding students at an early stage and train them for science. In 2020, he received a study scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes). The same year, he joined the project "Restatement of Restitution Rules for Nazi-Confiscated Art" at the chair of Prof. Weller. Jordan Schmeller worked for this project as a student research assistant for over two years before passing the First State Examination in 2023. Since March 2023, he has been working for the project as a research fellow while pursuing a Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Weller.

Dr. Antonetta Stephany studied law at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and the University of Helsinki. She specialized in the field of public law, namely constitutional, European and international law. During her studies, she worked as a student assistant for Prof. Dr. Philipp Reimer. In 2019, she successfully passed the First State Examination. In 2020, she joined the research project "Restatement of Restitution Rules" at the chair of Prof. Dr. Matthias Weller as a research assistant and completed her PhD under his supervision. As part of the project, she dealt with procedural issues as well as aspects of constitutional and administrative law. For her doctoral project, she was given the opportunity to take part in research events in Tel Aviv and New York. She completed her dissertation entitled "Just and fair? Bausteine eines Verfahrens im Sinne der Washingtoner Prinzipien" in October 2023, the publication is funded by the Studienstiftung Ius Vivum and the Konrad Redeker Foundation. Since October 2023, she has been working as a trainee lawyer at the Regional Court of Bonn.

Dr. Johannes von Lintig, Maître en droit, studied German and French law in Potsdam and Paris (Nanterre) with scholarships from the French-German University (DFH/UFA) and the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (“Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes”). In 2018, he completed the First State Examination for which he was awarded the Wolf-Rüdiger-Bub-Prize by the Faculty of Law at the University of Potsdam and the Association of Friends and Supporters of the Faculty of Law at the University of Potsdam. Throughout and following his studies, Johannes von Lintig has worked for various international law firms in Paris, Luxemburg and Berlin. In June 2019, he joined the research project “Restatement of Restitution Rules” at the chair of Prof. Weller. For his PhD thesis “Ausgleichsleistungen für Kulturgüterverluste während der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus in Frankreich” on the French legal framework for the reparation of cultural losses during the nazi rule, related to the Project and completed in October 2023, he received scholarships from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, Studienstiftung ius vivum and Stiftung Zeitlehren. Starting in October 2023, he has been a legal trainee at the Oberlandesgericht Köln. His dissertation was awarded the prestigious Bijus Dissertation Prize 2025. The dissertation was also honoured by the Ius Vivum Foundation.

Leva Wenzel completed law school with the First State Examination and obtained a B.A. and M.A. degree in art history and philosophy from Humboldt University Berlin. She passed part of her master's studies at Bard Graduate Center in New York with a scholarship from the Fulbright Commission. Supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), she then completed an interdisciplinary research stay on iconoclasm and the protection of cultural heritage at Princeton University. Thereafter she received a scholarship from the Max Planck Institute (MPI) in Florence and took up a position there as a research assistant in Prof. Dr. Carolin Behrmann's research project "Nomos of Images – Manifestation and Iconology of Law" (2017/18). Through a cooperative exchange this led to a position as a research assistant with Federal Constitutional Court Justice Prof. Dr. Susanne Baer and the founding committee of the "Stiftung Forum Recht" (2018/19). She then joined Prof. Dr. Matthias Weller's research project "Restatement of Restitution Rules" at University of Bonn, in which she also started her Ph.D. project. In 2022/23, alongside her thesis, she worked as a consultant at the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the division for "Federal Cultural Policy, Federal Law, and UNESCO Matters". In 2024, she will take up a position as a consultant at the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.