Prof. Dr. Emanuel V. Towfigh holds the Chair in Public Law, Empirical Legal Research and Law & Economics at the Law School and is a Professor of Law & Economics at the Business School of EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht in Wiesbaden/Germany since 2016. Since October 2024 he is a Max Planck Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and as such heads the »Center for Diversity in Law« which is funded by Stiftung Mercator. He is Director of the BRYTER Center for Digitalization & Law and supports the EBS Diversity & Refugee Law Clinic. From 2018 to 2020 he was Dean of EBS Law School, since 2023 he is Vice Dean Research. He is also a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Peking University’s School of Transnational Law and Research Affiliate at the Max Plack Institute for Research on Collective Goods. Towfigh has been an Editor of the German Law Journal since 2011 and serves as Co-Editor in Chief since 2016.

Emanuel V. Towfigh studied law and economics in Münster and Nanjing from 1997 to 2002, sponsored by the German National Academic Foundation. After passing his first state exam in law, he became a research assistant to Janbernd Oebbecke at the Institute of Municipal Studies at the University of Münster, where he obtained his doctorate (Dr. iur.). His dissertation was sponsored by the German National Academic Foundation and was awarded the 2005 Dissertation Prize of the University of Münster. He completed his legal clerkship at Münster District Court in 2007 with the second state examination in law and was subsequently admitted to the bar.

From 2007 to 2016, Emanuel V. Towfigh worked at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn as a Senior Research Fellow under Christoph Engel. In 2011/12 he was a Global Fellow and Hauser Research Scholar at NYU School of Law, and in 2012/13 he taught as a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. In December 2014, he habilitated at the University of Münster, where he was awarded the venia legendi for public law and legal theory. His habilitation thesis was awarded the Münster University Society Prize in 2015. This was followed by visiting professorships in Göttingen (winter semester 2014/15), Münster (summer semester 2015) and at the Humboldt University of Berlin (winter semester 2015/16). From 2011 to 2016, Emanuel V. Towfigh was a member of the Young Academy at the Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and at the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, where he also served as speaker of the Board in 2014/15.