Franz-Stefan Meissel - Biography#

Franz-Stefan Meissel was born in 1966 in Graz (Austria) where he attended the Akademisches Gymnasium (1976-1984). In 1982/83 he spent a year as an AFS student in Eugene, Oregon (USA).

From 1984-1988 he studied law at the University of Vienna and (for one semester) at the Université Paris 2 (Panthéon-Assas). His doctoral thesis on Negotiorum gestio under Austrian law was supervised by Prof. Helmut Koziol and won the Figdor Award of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 1994.

Since 1990 he was lecturer at the Institute for Roman Law and Antique Legal History of the University of Vienna where he earned the venia legend in 2000 for “Roman Law” and for “Evolution of European Private Law”. His book on the Roman contract of partnership (societas) received the most prestigious Premio Boulvert in 2004.

From 2000-2003 he was project director for the Austrian Historians´ Commission and served from 2010-2020 as member of an advisory board to the Austrian ministry of culture for art restitution matters concerning the Leopold Museum.

In 2005 he became Full professor at the University of Vienna where he currently is Vice Dean and Director of the Doctoral Studies Program. He also serves as “speaker” (executive officer) for the Doctoral School Ars Iuris (with 240 fellows).

Since 2007 he is also the Director of the “Sommerhochschule”, an international summer program in European Studies (financially supported by the EU Jean Monnet Program).

Meissel was Visiting professor at the University Paris Cité (since 2004 every year), the University of Montpellier, the University Roma Tor Vergata and the University of Cologne and regularly teaches at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna.

He is founder and editor of the DOA journal University of Vienna Law Review and Co-editor of the Zeitschrift für Rechtsgeschichte der Savigny-Stiftung (the oldest and most renowned journal on Roman law).

Together with Ulrike Babusiaux (Zürich), Christian Baldus (Heidelberg), Wolfgang Ernst (Oxford/Zürich), Johannes Platschek (München) and Thomas Rüfner he initiated the new “Handbuch des Römischen Privatrechts” which was published in 3 volumes in 2023 by Mohr/Siebeck.