8 days and傳 הק

Good evening everybody.

I'm extremely pleased to see so many students,

obviously some already prepared,

a very special season is starting tonight.

But tonight we have a very special guest,

Judge Professor Dr. Bertram Schmidt

from the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

I'm extremely pleased to introduce Bertram Schmidt

who is, as you all know of course,

the highest German international judge.

We are extremely thankful that you took the time

to come here to talk to our students.

We have this conversation today in English

as you now know because I've started to speak in English

because it is a part also of our master program,

the Master in Human Rights and Human Rights Policy.

And they are international students

who are not all capable of speaking English.

So by the courtesy, it's our pleasure

to speak tonight in English.

Later on, if you want to raise questions,

feel free also to maybe address Judge Schmidt in German.

He's perfectly capable of speaking German still

and understanding German.

So don't, you know, the language shouldn't stand in your way

to raise questions if you feel the need and the urge

to ask a question to Judge Schmidt.

Let me quickly introduce Judge Schmidt's wonderful career.

He studied in Frankfurt and had his PhD in Frankfurt

on Körperverletzung bei Fußballspielen.

So you can tell also he's, indeed, he's a football fan.

Unfortunately, not from a fan of Nuremberg,

of a club rather than Frankfurt team,

but we'll see how that ends on Saturday,

the Saturday to come.

Anyway, he wrote a PhD in Frankfurt

and then he became a judge in Hesse, in the state of Hesse,

at the regional court and the district court.

From 1919 onwards, he was a presiding judge

at the Landgericht, the regional court in Darmstadt.

A year later, he became an honorary professor

at the University of Würzburg,

our neighboring university in lower Franconia.

And in 2005, he was elected to become a federal judge

at the Bundesgerichtshof, the federal court of justice,

in Karlsruhe.

And there, surprisingly maybe,

he was at first in the Banken Senat.

So he's dealing with banking institutions, banking laws,