Philipp Schlüter

Professor Philipp Schlüter received his legal education in Germany, earning his doctorate in law from the University of Freiburg. He previously held academic positions at the University of Freiburg and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, and worked at the German Federal Chancellery in Berlin and UNIDROIT in Rome, among others.

Professor Schlüter’s research spans the core fields of private law (tort, contract, property, and unjust enrichment), as well as civil procedure, remedies and bankruptcy. Across these areas, his work focuses on the relationship between form and substance, examining how formalism and functionalism shape doctrinal outcomes, and draws on comparative insights. He holds an LLM from Yale Law School and recently completed his JSD there as well.

• JSD, Yale Law School (to be officially conferred September 2026)
• LLM, Yale Law School
• Dr. iur. (Ph.D. in law), University of Freiburg, Germany
• Erstes Juristisches Staatsexamen (JD equivalent), University of Freiburg, Germany

• Commercial Law - Sales of Goods (Sales) LAW 655
• Contracts LAW 601
• Civil Procedure LAW 610A

• Quinn Emanuel Urhart & Sullivan University of Freiburg Faculty Teaching Price (2024)
• VG WORT Competitive Book Publication Grant (2020; full funding)

• Wirklichkeitsstörungen zwischen Vertrag und Gesetz – Zur Abgrenzung von Mangelbegriff, Unmöglichkeit und Geschäftsgrundlage, 226 ARCHIV FÜR DIE CIVILISTISCHE PRAXIS 367 (2026), Topic: Contractual risk allocation and statutory excuse for changed circumstances (impracticability/frustration of purpose).
• Typenzwang, Überbau und Auswirkungen einer gescheiterten dinglichen Rechtseinräumung auf den Schuldvertrag (Anmerkung zu BGH v. 19.12.2025 – V ZR 15/24), 81 Juristenzeitung 460 (2026), Topic: What happens to the underlying contract when a conveyed property right fails the numerus clausus test?
• Book Review of Eray Gündüz, Abstraktionsprinzip als Eigentumstheorie (Abstraction Principle as a Theory of Property) (Tübingen, 2025), 226 ARCHIV FÜR DIE CIVILISTISCHE PRAXIS 129 (2026).
• § 816 BGB, BECK'SCHER ONLINE-GROßKOMMENTAR, C.H. BECK, MÜNCHEN (Beate Gsell, Wolfgang Krüger, Stephan Lorenz & Christoph Reymann, eds.) (2025; 82 pages), Topic: Comprehensive examination of profit disgorgement remedies based on unjust enrichment principles under the German Civil Code (BGB).