Bio

Benedikt Thiggins (born Huggins) is a fully qualified lawyer and Research Associate at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) in Berlin. Previously, he served as a Research Associate at the Institute for German and European Administrative Law (Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Kahl) at Heidelberg University and at the Institute for Environmental and Planning Law (Prof. Dr. Schlacke) at the University of Münster.

He studied law at the University of Münster and completed his legal traineeship (Referendariat) at the Regional Court of Münster, including placements at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer. His doctoral research addresses the use of artificial light at night and its impacts as an emerging, ubiquitous environmental stressor. His research interests focus on environmental and planning law, with particular emphasis on their intersections with European Union law and constitutional law. As a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, he examines the vulnerability of academic freedom in times of democratic regression.