About
Nils is an associate member of chambers. He is Professor of Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences, Director of CELLS, a research centre, and Dean of Research at the University of Hannover. His work focuses on questions of international/cross-border governance of biomedical research, regenerative medicine, biomaterials, international arbitration in pharma, and data protection and privacy issues in medicine (especially in genomics). He co-authored the Cambridge University Press textbook on Medical Law and Medical Ethics.
Experience
Nils was educated at St Dunstan’s College and went on to read law in Nottingham, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Goettingen and Hannover, with a specialisation in medical law and human rights law. He was admitted to Gray’s Inn in 2001 whilst working as a legal executive in litigation but was not called to the Bar at the time and instead returned to academia. Nils subsequently became in-house counsel at Goettingen University Hospital and later took up a position as research fellow in the Department for Ethics and History of Medicine at the University of Goettingen. In 2004, he accepted a position as lecturer at the University of Hannover and in 2007 became senior research fellow both at the Institute for Legal Informatics and at the Centre for Philosophy and Ethics of Science.
From 2008, he coordinated the university’s medical law and bioethics research group before founding the Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences (CELLS), of which he is now the director. An assistant professor from 2011 to 2013, Nils is now a full professor of Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences.
Nils is a member of the University’s Ethics Committee and has been an external ethics expert for the European Commission since 2008. He is also a member of the UK Biobank Ethics and Governance Council. From 2009 to 2014 he was an executive board member of the European Association of Health Law and from 2010 a member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Health Law.
Between 2010 and 2014, he was a regular visiting fellow to the Centre for Health, Law and Emerging Technologies at the University of Oxford. He is a visiting professor at the European School of Molecular Medicine, Milan and in the Faculty of Law at the University of Vienna.
Nils is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
Testimonials
“A leading academic in the field of life sciences law”, The Guardian, 18 November 2016.
“Unusually sophisticated treatment of the complex interplay of law and ethics. So far as the law is concerned, rigorously scholarly but always practical and down to earth.” Charles Foster, Serjeants’ Inn Chambers and University of Oxford (book review of Medical Law and Medical Ethics).
“A well-written criticism of traditional approaches to the human body, and contains some sharp observations on existing regulatory regimes. […] could be of enormous value for both researchers and policy makers in this complex field” Britta van Beers, University of Amsterdam (book review of Bioequity).
“[A] thorough and detailed legal analysis of an important question in contemporary medicine and research” Norbert Campagna, University of Luxembourg (book review of Bioequity).
Publications
Nils has over 50 publications in the field of life sciences law and ethics. His most imporant works include:
– Hoppe, Nils (2016) Privacy Laws and Biobanking in Germany. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 44(1): 35-44.
– Webborn, Nick et al. (2015) Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing for Predicting Sports Performance and Talent Identification. British Journal of Sports Medicine 49: 1486-1491.
– Briceño Moraia, Linda; Kaye, Jane; Tasse, Anne Marie; Knoppers, Bartha M.; Mitchell, Colin; Soini, Sirpa; Hoppe, Nils; Wallace, Susan E.; Øien, Morten (2015) A comparative analysis of the requirements for the use of data in biobanks based in Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. Medical Law International 14(4): 187-212.
– Hoppe, Nils and Miola, Jose (2014) Medical Law and Medical Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
– Hoppe, Nils; Miola, José (2014) Innovation in medicine through degeneration in law? A critical perspective on the Medical Innovation Bill. Medical Law International 14(4): 266-73.
– Kaye, Jane; Meslin, Eric; Knoppers, Bartha; Juengst, Eric; Deschênes, Mylene; Cambon-Thomsen, Anne; Chalmers, Donald; De Vries, Jantina; Edwards, Kelly; Hoppe, Nils et al. (2012) ELSI 2.0: A New International Collaboratory for Genomics and Society Research. Science 336(6082): 673-4
– Beier, Katharina; Schnorrer, Silvia; Lenk, Christian; Hoppe, Nils (Eds.) (2011) The ethical and legal regulation of human tissue and biobank research in Europe. Göttingen: Göttingen University Press
– Lenk, Christian; Hoppe, Nils; Beier, Katharina; Wiesemann, Claudia (Eds.) (2011) Human TissueResearch – A European Perspective on the Ethical and Legal Challenges. Oxford: Oxford University Press
– Hoppe, Nils (2009) Bioequity – Property and the Human Body. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing
– Lenk, Christian; Hoppe, Nils; Andorno, Roberto (Eds.) (2007) Ethics and Law of Intellectual Property – Current Problems in Politics, Science and Technology. Aldershot: Ashgate
Education and Professional Memberships
Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
University of Goettingen
University of Hannover
BPP Law School
