Research Fellows

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. She specialized in the field of intellectual property with a focus on copyright law under the supervision of Prof. em. Dr. Artur-Axel Wandtke. Annika discovered her interest in the area of restitution and provenance research, whilst working with Dr. Mara Wantuch-Thole at dtb Rechtsanwälte Berlin. After completing her first state examination in Berlin, she attended the Faculty of Law at “Università degli Studi di Roma 'La Sapienza’” (Italy), where she graduated with a cum-laude degree in Comparative Law and Western Constitutionalism. In 2020 Annika joined the research project "Restatement of Restitution Rules" as a research fellow and currently pursues a Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Weller.

Charis Hahne studied law and art history at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and Uniwersytet Gdański (Erasmus exchange). She holds a bachelor’s (2013) and a master's degree (2016) in art history, focusing in particular on 19th century art and the Düsseldorfer Malerschule. During her legal studies, she developed an interest in intellectual property law and legal history. After passing the First State Examination in 2018, she joined the research project „Restatement of Restitution Rules“ at the chair of Prof. Dr. Matthias Weller in 2019. For her PhD project, related to the project, she received a scholarship from the Gerda Henkel Stiftung. Since 2022, she has been a legal trainee at the Oberlandesgericht Köln, including a station at the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations.

Hannah Lehmann studied law at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. In 2019 she successfully passed the First State Examination. Hannah 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 Hannah 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 pursues a Ph.D. under his supervision. For her PhD project, related to the Project, she received a scholarship of the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung für die Freiheit.

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.

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. Since 2019 Tessa works on the research project “Restatement of Restitution Rules” and pursues a Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Weller.

Jordan Schmeller studied law at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and Universidade de Lisboa (Erasmus exchange). During his studies, he successfully participated in the university’s Foreign Legal Studies Program (FFA) in English. Additionally, he took part in the university’s Honor’s Program attending extracurricular lectures on theory of science, philosophy and psychology. 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" at the chair of Prof. Weller. Jordan Schmeller worked for the project as a student research assistant for over two years before passing the First State Examination in 2023. Since March 2023, he works for the project as a research fellow while pursuing a Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Weller.

Antonetta Stephany studied law at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and the University of Helsinki (Erasmus exchange). During her studies, she took part in the Foreign Legal Studies Program (FFA) in English and worked as a student assistant for Prof. Dr. Philipp Reimer, professorship in public law. She did her specialization in public law, namely in European law, public international law and constitutional law. In her specialization thesis she discussed the question if there can be a right to resist in a constitutional state following the rule of law. Due to her interest in journalism, she is an editorial journalist of the Bonner Rechtsjournal (BRJ) and works for an online magazine dealing with legal topics. She successfully passed the First State Examination in 2019. In 2020 she joined the research project „Restatement of Restitution Rules“ as a research fellow and pursues a Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Matthias Weller.

Johannes von Lintig studied German and French law in Potsdam and Paris. He holds a Licence degree (bachelor) in French and German Civil Law (2015) and a Maîtrise degree (LL.M) in European business law with a focus on international private law and French intellectual property law (2016) from the University Paris Nanterre (formerly Paris X). In 2018, he successfully passed the First State Examination (“Erste juristische Prüfung”) in Berlin/Brandenburg. For his performance in this exam, he was awarded the Wolf-Rüdiger-Bub-Prize for the promotion of young jurists by the Faculty of Law Potsdam and the Association of Friends and Supporters of the Faculty of Law Potsdam. During his studies Johannes von Lintig was supported by scholarships from the German-French University (“Deutsch-Französische Hochschule – DFH”) and the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (“Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes”). Throughout and following his studies Johannes von Lintig has worked as an intern and research assistant for several international law firms, notably in Paris (Adam Caumeil, 2015-2016), Luxembourg (Elvinger Hoss Prussen, 2016), Potsdam (Dombert Rechtsanwälte, 2017-2018) and Berlin (Gleiss Lutz Rechtsanwälte und Notare, 2018-2019) specializing in different legal areas (inter alia civil, commercial and corporate law, public law and IP law). In 2019, Johannes von Lintig joined the research project "Restatement of Restitution Rules" at the chair of Prof. Weller. For his PhD project, related to the Project, he received a scholarship of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.

Leva Wenzel studied law, art history and philosophy in Berlin, New York, and Princeton. After graduation from Law School with the First State Exam, and an intertwined completion of a Bachelor in art history and philosophy at Humboldt University, Leva moved on to finish her master in art history at the Bard Graduate Center in New York with a scholarship by the renowned Fulbright Commission. Supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), she remained in the US for a research stay at Princeton University focussing on preparatory aspects of her PhD project. Subsequently, she started an interdisciplinary PhD project in international cultural heritage law at Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel (Germany), supervised by Prof. Dr. von der Decken (law school), and Prof. Dr. Horst Bredekamp (art history). Right at the outset of her PhD, Leva received a scholarship by the Max Planck Institute (MPI) in Florence (Italy), which allowed her to start a one-year position as a research assistant in the project ‚The Nomos of Images‘, led by Dr. Carolin Behrmann at the MPI. Based on an unexpected opportunity, her stay in Florence was seamlessly followed by a position as an assistant to the Justice Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Susanne Baer at the German Federal Constitutional Court in September 2018, to join the project ‚Forum Recht Karlsruhe‘. In September 2019, Leva resumed her PhD and started a position as a research assistant in the project ‚Restatement of Restitution Rules‘, led by Prof. Dr. Weller at University of Bonn.