Thomas Thiede studied Law, Economics and Political Sciences at the → Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald, Germany where he obtained his Bachelor of Laws in 2003 having worked as an assistant for → Prof. Dr. Stefan Habermeier. He then went on to complete a Master of Laws (Comparative and EU Law) at the same institution followed by his First State Exam (Referendarsexamen) in October 2006.
Following this and having taken a position as a scientific assistant at the → Institute for European Tort Law of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, he began his doctoral studies under → Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bernhard Koch, LL.M. and → o.Univ.-Prof. i.R. Dr. Dr. h.c. Helmut Koziol. His thesis focused on the protection of personality rights from invasion by the mass media particularly in the context of cross border conflict of laws problems within Europe.
In 2010 he was awarded his doctorate summa cum laude from the University of Innsbruck, Austria and promoted to a Junior Scientist at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. His thesis was published by → Jan Sramek Verlag. For this work he was awarded the → 2011 Franz-Gschnitzer Förderungpreis thus joining this respected fraternity of distinguished young scholars. In the beginning of 2013 he joined the prominent ranks of lecturers at the → Institute for Civil law, Foreign and Private International Law of the University of Graz, Austria and holds courses and lectures on Comparative Law and Conflict of Laws. In addition and since December 2015 he has been undertaking judicial training at the
→ Higher Regional Court of Dortmund, Germany and since October 2016 has been teaching at the → Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.
His primary research interests are in Comparative Law, the Conflict of Laws, Tort Law and Antitrust Law. He has participated in and presented at a wide range of → international conferences. He has also contributed to a number of → leading academic journals and edited collections alongside managing a range of projects at the Institute for European Tort Law. He is a Fellow of the → European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law (ECTIL) and the → European Law Institute (ELI) as well as a member of → Trans Europe Experts.
He is fluent in English and German and has a working knowledge of French and Russian and is keenly interested in the interface between information technology and both legal learning and scholarship. Away from law he has a passionate interest in → sailing.