Andreas Zimmermann

Andreas Zimmermann of Germany was elected as the new President of the OSCE Court of Conciliation and Arbitration in November 2025.

Zimmermann is Professor of International and European Law at the University of Potsdam (Germany) and Director of the Potsdam Centre of Human Rights. He is currently Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Potsdam.

Prior to joining Potsdam University, he was Director of the Walther-Schücking-Institute of International Law at the University of Kiel and a research fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute of International Law, University of Heidelberg.

Zimmerman has also held visiting professorships at the University of Michigan (United States), Copenhagen (Denmark), Tartu (Estonia), the University of Johannesburg (RSA), Hebrew University (Israel) Bir Zeit University (Palestine), the Hague Academy of International Law, the Sorbonne Abu Dhabi (UAE), as well as part of the United Nations International Law Fellowship Programme.

In addition to his academic career, Zimmermann has acted as counsel in several cases and advisory proceedings before the International Court of Justice and other interstate proceedings. He has been a member and legal adviser of the German delegation to the Preparatory Committee and the United Nations Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of the International Criminal Court (1996-1998). He was also judge ad hoc in cases before the European Court of Human Rights. From 2018 until 2020, he was a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Zimmermann is also a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and a conciliator under the Annex to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. He also serves on the Advisory Board on International Law at the German Federal Foreign Office and on the German Red Cross Committee on International Humanitarian Law.

Zimmermann studied law at the Eberhard-Karls-University of Tübingen as well as at Université Aix-en-Provence. He has earned a Dr. jur. from the University of Heidelberg, as well as an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and his Habilitation from the University of Heidelberg.