Professor Dr Johanna Hey & Professor Dr Joachim Hennrichs: Research is shaping tax and business law

Johanna Hey is Professor of Tax Law and Director of the Institute for Tax Law; Joachim Hennrichs is Professor of Civil Law, Accounting and Tax Law and Director of the Institute for Sustainability, Corporate Law and Reporting (INUR) at the University of Cologne. As members of the Academic Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry of Finance, they contribute legal expertise directly to central financial and tax policy decision-making processes.

1. What role has transfer played in your career so far?

Hey: From the beginning of my academic career, I engaged with a core dimension of legal knowledge transfer – policy advice – through both my doctoral thesis and my habilitation (post-doctoral lecturing qualification) at the University of Cologne under Joachim Lang. My teacher Joachim Lang was one of the leading scholars in this field.
Hennrichs: The transfer of knowledge from academia to civil society and politics is important and beneficial across all areas of law. This is particularly true for the field of business law in which I specialize. For me, transfer in the sense of an exchange between science and practice is therefore an essential part of my scientific work and social responsibility.

2. Which of your transfer activities would you like to report on, and what can you tell us about them?

Our work on the Academic Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry of Finance exemplifies scientific transfer at the highest political level. The Advisory Board consists of 25 members and advises the minister on matters of fiscal and budgetary policy. It operates in close coordination with the ministry while remaining independent in its assessments. 
A current example is the reform of the fiscal rules governing public debt. The board is predominantly composed of economists. One of our tasks as lawyers is to examine whether and how the economically developed proposals can be implemented within the existing legal framework. In matters of tax law and in statements on legislative policy initiatives, the legal scholars on the Advisory Board sometimes even take the lead. Transfer is often accompanied by intensive interdisciplinary exchange, which is incredibly enriching for our own research activities.

3. How did you get this job?

Hey: Reflecting on “correct” tax law has been a constant throughout my academic work. As a public law scholar, I am particularly interested in the real-world effects of tax law standards. Whether a norm is constitutionally compliant depends not only on the letter of the law but also on how it is implemented and functions in practice. Since I do not conduct empirical research myself, the exchange with the empirically oriented economists on the Academic Advisory Board is extremely valuable. Their insights feed directly into my legal assessments of new legislative initiatives and my own proposals for legislative reform.
Hennrichs: Appointments to the Scientific Advisory Board are made by the Federal Minister of Finance following a secret vote held by the board. The board renews itself independently of political influence, guided solely by scientific excellence. I believe it has been an advantage that my research focuses on the intersection of law and economics. In addition, I bring many years of experience from other roles in legal and policy advisory work. The board’s interdisciplinary approach reflects my conviction that complex societal problems can only be addressed through collaboration across various disciplines.

4. What concrete social impact have you achieved through this activity so far?

Through our opinions and expert reports, scientific findings can be directly fed into the legal-policy debate, and, at best, even into legislation and administrative practice. Recently, for example, on the Advisory Board, we critically analysed proposals for a new legal form of ‘company with tied assets’ and, from an interdisciplinary perspective, recommended improvements to the drafts presented. These proposals are currently being discussed in Berlin. We have also developed concrete reform proposals in the areas of income and corporate tax law. Furthermore, our most recent statement on the highly controversial topic of reforming the debt brake is expected to shape the fiscal policy debate in the coming months.