Background

Christian Behrendt, of German and Belgian nationality, was born in Bonn (Germany) in September 1974. He went to school in Germany, before beginning his law degree at the University of Liège in 1995. Graduating in law in 2000, he obtained the Magister Juris diploma from Oxford University in 2001, after an additional year of study. After four years of doctoral studies under the direction of professors Otto Pfersmann (University of Paris 1) and Jean-Claude Scholsem (University of Liège), and obtaining a grant from the Fonds national de la Recherche scientifique (FNRS) for the same period, he defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne ("Le juge constitutionnel, un législateur-cadre positif") in June 2005. He received a distinction, summa cum laude, and won the 2005 thesis prize awarded by the Conseil Constitutionel Français as well as the 2005 thesis prize awarded by the European Group of Public Law, established in Athens; it has been co-published by Bruylant (Brussels) and LGDJ (Paris). I

n August 2005, Christian Behrendt enrolled in a year’s post-doctoral studies at Yale Law School (New Haven, Connecticut, United States), where he obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in May 2006. During that year, he also benefited from a mandate as an FNRS Head of Research, receiving a grant from the Fondation Francqui and an Honorary Scholarship from the Fulbright Program. Since 1st October 2006, he has been a junior lecturer at the University of Liège’s Faculty of Law, where he particularly teaches the general theory of the state and comparative constitutional law. Following Professor Jean-Claude Scholsem’s accession to the position of professor emeritus, Christian Behrendt became the holder of the Chair of Constitutional Law in October 2008.