Deborah Fries, a former research associate at the Institute, has been awarded the Science and Research Prize of the Hamburger Kreis für Sanierungs– und Insolvenzrecht for her dissertation on "fiscal privilege".

In her comparative law work, Fries takes a close look at various forms of privileged treatment of the authorities in corporate insolvencies by examining fiscal privileges and their effects in Germany, France, the USA and Australia. The starting point is the question of the extent to which one can justify fiscal privileges in a modern insolvency system. On the one hand, the German authorities have to ensure the collection of taxes within the framework of Union law and national constitutional law; on the other hand, the equal treatment of creditors is a fundamental principle of German insolvency law.

Deborah Fries wrote her dissertation at the Institute under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Schön.

The purpose of the Science and Research Award is to promote knowledge as well as the work of young academics at the interface of insolvency law and tax law and is awarded to particularly ambitious doctoral theses at the interface of insolvency law and tax law.

June 2021