Prof. Dr. Jonathan Ercanbrack
- Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
- Director of the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (CIMEL)
- Speaker at Cambridge University’s Economic Crime Symposium
- Member of, among others, the UK hybrid Islamic Finance Group, the Global South Economic Crimes Network and the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE)
- B.A. German Language and Literature (University of Utah)
- Vordiplom (intermediate diploma) in German Studies and Economics (Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg)
- MSc Politics of Empire and Post Imperialism (London School of Economics)
- PhD in Law, SOAS University of London
Dr. Dominik Krell
- Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford, and Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College
- Previously Research Assistant and later Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg (2016–2023)
- Member of GAIR since 2011
- Member of the Board of Trustees since 2023
- Doctorate (2021), University of Hamburg
- Studied law (State Examination), Islamic studies (Bachelor) and social anthropology (Master)
- Responsible for the GAIR website
Dr. Philine Wehling
- Legal Officer at the Secretariat of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), Rome, since 2019
- Liaison Officer for UNIDROIT Correspondents in the Middle East and Africa since 2021
- Desk Officer at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Berlin, 2016–2018
- Legal Officer in the Legal Office of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO), 2010–2016
- Focus on project management and on advising member states on legislative reform in the Arab world
- Member of GAIR since 2002
- Member of the GAIR Board of Trustees since 2023
- Legal traineeship (Referendariat) at the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf, with placements in Geneva, London and Paris
- Doctorate in international law on water rights on the Nile, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg / Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law
- Studied law and Islamic studies at the Universities of Passau, Heidelberg and Hamburg
- Studied Arabic language, literature and politics at the University of Damascus
- Studied French language and culture at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
- Member of the editorial board of the Zeitschrift Recht & Islam / Journal of Law & Islam since 2024
PD Dr. Rike Sinder, M.A.
- Visiting Professor of Sustainability Law at the University of Mannheim (2025–2026)
- Member of GAIR since 2014
- Member of the Board of Trustees since 2023
- Doctorate at the University of Freiburg with the thesis ‘Die Systematisierung des islamischen Rechts. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte teleologischen Naturrechtsdenkens’ [The Systematisation of Islamic Law: A Contribution to the History of Teleological Natural Law Thought] (Mohr Siebeck 2020), awarded the Erasmus Prize for the Liberal Arts and Sciences of the University College Freiburg, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (2021), and the Academic Prize of the German Section of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (2022)
- Studied law, political science and Islamic studies in Freiburg, Grenoble and Damascus (funded by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and the German Academic Exchange Service)
- Member of GAIR since 2014
Maren Hoeppner
- Master’s student in Islamic studies at Freie Universität Berlin
- Human Resources Officer at the Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF) (until 2025)
- Previously, among other roles, staff member in the international scholarship programme of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and Regional Manager and Marketing Adviser at NUMOV and the Deutsches Orient Institut
- Member of GAIR since 2019
- Member of the Board of Trustees since 2023
- Responsible for information seminars and the Young Scholars Network
Thea F. Seidler
- Bachelor’s studies in Islamic theology (B.A.) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin since 2019
- Bachelor’s studies in business law (LL.B.) at HTW Berlin University of Applied Sciences, 2018–2023
- Master’s studies in corporate law in an international context (LL.M.) at the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin) since 2023
- Master’s studies in Management and Law (M.Sc.) at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) as part of a double master’s programme in Switzerland, 2024–2025
- Team assistant in the Bundestag office of Dr. Markus Reichel (since June 2023)
- Member of GAIR (since 2023)
VLR I Kai Kreuzberger, LL.M.
German Federal Foreign Office