Experience:

 

Independent Expert and Consultant on Legal Systems in Post-Soviet Countries

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Since 2019 Self-employed

 

• Since 2007 Providing expert opinions on Russian law, law of other CIS countries and Private International Law for courts and parties to a lawsuit ​

  • Selection of provided expert opinions:

    • Expert opinion for the majority shareholders of Yukos in an enforcement proceeding against the Russian Federation before the Dutch courts, where some world-famous trademark rights held by a state-owned company were successfully seized. 

    • Expert opinion for a Ukrainian state-owned company in a lawsuit before German courts, where the validity of a contract was to be clarified.

    • Expert opinion for a German fiscal court in connection with a violation of sanctions.

    • Several expert opinions for two Austrian courts in cases concerning civil defamation protection as part of a larger dispute between two Russian major entrepreneurs.

    • Expert opinion for the Potsdam Regional Court to clarify the acquisition by prescription of a painting that was taken from Germany during World War II and brought to the Soviet Union and is currently located in Russia.

    • Expert opinion on the division of marital property under Kazakhstani family law.

    • Expert opinion for a former CEO before the Essen Regional Court / Hamm Higher Regional Court regarding the scope of the arbitration agreement, particularly its extension to the CEO (the case of Rustenburg Co. Ltd. vs. RWE AG)

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• Since 2025 Arbitrator

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Research Affiliations and Teaching Experience

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• Since 2021 Privatdozentin at the University of Hamburg

Teaching areas: international economic law and Eastern European law (focus: Russia and the Eurasian legal area).​ Lectures "Introduction into Russian law" with focus on public law, regional integration in the post-sowiet area and theoretical background of transformation of a legal system, and "Introduction into Russian private and economic law" with focus on application of Russian law by a German court, including related questions of German Civil Procedural Law, Private International Law, drafting of contracts, Compliance and  Foreign Trade Law.

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• 2020-2021 Teaching assignment at Law Faculty of Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, lectures on East European and Russian Law, lecture “German-Russian Legal Relationships in the Judicial Praxis”

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• Since 2020 Affiliation with the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU), Georgia as visiting professor 

 

• Participation in editorial boards​

  • Since 2021 at the Journal "Civilistika"  (Russia)

  • ​Since 2020 at the  Journal "Ius Privatum" (Ukraine)

 

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Participation in Legal Development Assistance Projects

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• Since 2015 Participation in IRZ legal development assistance projects

• Since 2010 Participation as a consultant in GIZ legal development assistance projects

  • 2019 Project: "Promotion of the Rule of Law in Central Asia", Administrative Procedure Law ​of Uzbekistan

  • 2015-2016 Project: "Promotion of the Rule of Law in Central Asia", Succession Law of Turkmenistan leading the efforts of local experts on the fourth volume of the commentary on the Civil Code of Turkmenistan (published 2020); Workshops on German law for Turkmenian lawyers

  • 2010-2011 Participation as a consultant in a GIZ legal development assistance project, which included counselling the Ukrainian government on privatisation questions in cooperation with local expert​​s

 

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Some Research Projects Over the Years 2007-2018

(during my employment as a senior research fellow and the head of the Regional Unit for Russia and other CIS-Countries at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law)

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• 2010-2018 Post-doctoral project (Habilitation) „Transformation der russischen Eigentumsordnung – Eine vergleichende Analyse aus der Sicht des deutschen Rechts“ [“The Transformation of Russian Property Law – A Comparative Analysis from the Perspective of German Law”], 2019 Tübingen (Mohr Siebeck, Open Access)

  • The work comparatively analyses the notion of property in Russian law. The study examines the Russian conception of property with reference to the country’s legal culture, tracing the continuity of Russian legal thinking from the Tsarist empire to the current era and considering how this thinking has impacted the modern legal rules on property law.

  • In 2018 the work was awarded the ​deutsch-russischer Juristenpreis

  • Reviewed e.g. by Trunk, RabelsZ 85 (2021), p. 466-471

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• Januar-März 2018 Research stay at Law Faculty of the University of Cambridge. Project:  “Estoppel in Russian Law.

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• 2016-2018 Project: “Integration of Ukrainian Private Law into the European Area of Justice”, in cooperation with Research Institute for Private Law and Entrepreneurship of the National Academy of Law of the Ukraine, Kiev

  • Conference “Integration of Ukrainian Private Law into the European Area of Justice”, 12.12.2016, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg

  • Edited volume: "Ukrainian Private Law and the European Area of Justice", Ed. by Eugenia Kurzynsky-Singer and Rainer Kulms, 2019 Tübingen  (Mohr Siebeck, Open Access)

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• Since 2012 Cooperative partnership with Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU), Georgia 

  • Joint conferences:

    • ​Conference „Private autonomy as a fundamental principle of civil law“, 1. - 2- November 2018, Tbilisi (Georgien), Conference volume ed. by Tamar Zarandia / Eugenia Kurzynsky-Singer (Hrsg.) was published 2020, Tbilisi

    • Conference „Ownership and the legal stability: Transforming the concept of ownership“, 5. - 6. November 2015 in Tiflis (Georgien), Conference volume, ed. by Tamar Zarandia/Eugenia Kurzynsky-Singer/Lia Shatberashvili published 2017, Tbilisi ​

    • Conference “The Development of Private Law in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Transformation by means of legal transplants?", October 18-19, 2012 in Tbilisi (Georgia), Conference Report: Grenz/Shmagin, in: Kurzynsky-Singer (Ed.), Transformation durch Rezeption?, Tübingen 2014, pp. 487-50

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• 2010-2012 Project sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation, “Comparative Legal Research on Eurasian Law”, with a budget of 300,000 €. I developed and led the project, which included supervising the research work of 8 long-term scholarship recipients from Caucasus/Central Asia and heading a unit of 4 staff members

  • Edited volume: „Transformation durch Rezeption? Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des Rechtstransfers am Beispiel der Zivilrechtsreformen im Kaukasus und in Zentralasien“, [“Transformation through Reception? – The Potential and Limits of Legal Transplants as Exemplified by the Civil Law Reforms in the Caucasus and in Central Asia”] 2014 Tübingen (Mohr Siebeck, Open Access).​

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• 2007-2018 Organisation of a regular discussion forum on the legal, political and societal developments of post-Soviet countries at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law

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Professional Affiliations:

• Deutsch-Russische Juristenvereinigung

• DGO

• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationales Recht

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