The Hon. Prof. Dr. Rudolf Mellinghoff

Rudolf Mellinghoff studied at the University of Munster and served his traineeship in Baden-Wuerttemberg. He was appointed a Judge at the Finance Court in 1989. Thereafter, he was Head of Unit, Ministry of Justice of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (1991-1992); Judge and Presiding Judge of the Finance Court of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (1992-1996), and, as a second full-time office, Judge of the Supreme Administrative Court of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (1992-1996); Member of the Constitutional Court of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (1995-1996), Judge of the Federal Tax Court of Germany - IX Senate (1997-2001); and Judge of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (2001-2011). From November 2011 – July 2020, he was President of the Federal Supreme Tax Court of Germany. He retired in August 2020 on reaching the age limit.

Since 2021, he leads the Centre for the Digitalization of Tax Law at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He is also the Scientific Director of the Institut Finanzen und Steuern e.V. (ifst) in Berlin. He has been appointed to several commissions, such as the Electoral Law Commission of the German Parliament and the reform commission on income tax reform at the Federal Ministry of Finance.

He was President of the German Section of the International Commission of Jurists (2009 – 2012). He is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald, and is an Honorary Professor at the Eberhard Karis University of Tubingen and since 2021 at the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich.