Prof. Dr. Dirk Heckmann

Academic Career and Research Areas

Prof. Heckmann (b. 1960) conducts research at the interface between IT and law, in particular in the areas of data protection law, IT security law, e-government and legal informatics. For many years his work has been instrumental for shaping the law with a view to placing the interests of the individual and society in general at the heart of digital change.

Prof. Heckmann studied law and completed his legal clerkship in Trier. He earned his doctoral degree as well as the postdoctoral qualification (habilitation) at the University of Freiburg. From 1996 until his appointnment at TUM in 2019 Heckmann was full Professor of Law at the University of Passau holding the Chair of Public Law, Security Law and Internet Law. Since 2003 Heckmann has been serving as a part-time constitutional judge at the Bavarian Constitutional Court. He was a member of the Ethics Committee of the Federal Ministry of Transport focused on autonomous and connected driving as well as of the Data Ethics Committee of the federal government. He is also consumer Ambassador at the Bavarian Center for Digitalization and director at the Bavarian Hub for Digital Transformation (bidt).