Evin Dalkilic and Philipp Falkenburg Awarded the Professor-Hürlimann Memorial Scholarship

Evin Dalkilic has been campaigning for a cultural shift in legal scholarship for many years through the blog „Verfassungsblog“ as part of several projects – including ELADOAH, OZOR and VEStOR.

"Educational opportunities are unevenly distributed in Germany – those without privileged access are structurally disadvantaged. Open access can redress this imbalance, which is why I am campaigning for open legal education materials for all,” says Evin Dalkilic, VEStOR project (University of Applied Sciences Potsdam).

As an information scientist, Philipp Falkenburg supports „Open Access Brandenburg“ (Vernetzungs- und Kompetenzstellen Open Access Brandenburg) and, unlike most non-lawyers, has gained a deep understanding of the research logic and working processes in legal scholarship and has helped to develop them constructively.

“I see myself as a bridge-builder between disciplines. Informationswissenschaften provides the framework without which Open Access cannot function,” said Philipp Falkenburg, VEStOR project (University of Applied Sciences Potsdam).

The scholarship honours the memory of Prof Dr Daniel Hürlimann (1985–2022), co-founder of the jurOA network and Switzerland’s first professor of legal informatics. It is awarded to academics and activists whose commitment to open access to legal knowledge reflects his vision.

“This award demonstrates how important interdisciplinary collaboration is for cultural change in legal scholarship. Evin and Philipp embody exactly what VEStOR stands for,” said Prof. Dr Ellen Euler, project lead of the BMFSJF-funded collaborative project VEStOR (University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, duration 2024–2026).