Foreign trade law:

Cross-border trade in goods, including software and technology or product-related services, entails a large number of specific obligations under foreign trade law. Typically, these are obligations under sanctions, export control and customs law. Against this background the question arises: Which product goes where or to whom and for what purpose? Meanwhile, foreign trade law obligations go beyond this and start well before the customs or national border, for example in the organisation of business processes in the light of existing due diligence obligations. In the recent past, an increasing tightening of the applicable law has been observed. Instead of the former dogma of free markets, the EU has long since set itself the goal of greater resilience and ‘open strategic autonomy’ - and has already begun to implement this in the form of specific legal acts. Companies therefore need to think even more in terms of foreign trade law. We support you in specific questions or conceptually, in particular on the following topics:

1. Sanctions Law
We advise on EU sanctions law in an informative, preventive manner within the framework of trade compliance, in a reappraisal and/or retrospective manner, for example on the classification of goods and the legal assessment of a sale or purchase, an export or import or other transfer/delivery, on dealing with sanctions within the group of companies (in particular IT architecture, services for subsidiaries, internal communication), on financial sanctions and also in dealing with authorities.

2. Export Control
We support our clients in the evaluation of goods from an export control law perspective and in the evaluation of export projects - be it medical devices, manufacturing equipment in high-tech mechanical engineering or strategically increasingly important (and more strictly regulated) ‘future technologies’. In this context, various services or the exchange of technical information are no less subject to export control restrictions. We take care of any necessary official communication and, if necessary, enforce your interests through legal action (which, of course, is rarely necessary).

3. Customs Law
We advise on the tariff classification of your products and on individual customs law issues in connection with import and export, in particular on the use of special procedures and, of course, on existing structuring options. We look after the interests of our clients in contact with the customs authorities and, if necessary, prepare them for any upcoming foreign trade/customs audits by the main customs authority.

4. Strategic advice
In addition to the further development of ‘classic’ instruments, we have been observing a trend towards the ‘geopoliticisation’ of foreign trade law for some time now. This is expressed in a wide variety of regulatory tendencies - with the hope of more sustainable and resilient structures for greater autonomy. Regardless of the specific effects in individual cases, internationally active companies are well advised to deal with this strategically.

• Studied law at the University of Bielefeld and the Université Paris Nanterre
• Research assistant at the chair of Prof. Dr. Michael Kotulla, M.A.
• Legal clerkship at the Berlin Court of Appeal with stations at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the headquarters of the Federal Foreign Office and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Pretoria for South Africa, Eswatini and Lesotho
• Doctorate thesis on Justiciability of individual rights, awarded the dissertation prize of the Bielefeld University Society)
• from 2016 to 2023, lawyer in an international law firm in Berlin with specialty in foreign trade law
• since 04/2023 Professor at the School of Economics and Law (Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht)