This book is the result of a doctoral thesis accepted by the University of Halle-Wittenberg
in Germany. It was written in large part during my time as a visiting
research student at Queen Mary University of London. This book takes into account
the legal situation, literature and case law until August 2018.
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my doctoral thesis supervisor, Professor
Dr. Christian Tietje, for his encouragement, valuable advice and the opportunity to
embark on this interesting research topic. I am also thankful to Professor Dr. Dirk
Hanschel who kindly undertook the second evaluation of my doctoral thesis. I especially
want to thank Dr. Angelos Dimopoulos for the many fruitful discussions we
had and his insightful, critical and thought-provoking comments on earlier drafts of
my thesis, which greatly helped advance my work and contour my arguments. I
would also like to mention the fantastic research environment at Queen Mary
University and wish to thank my fellow research students for many wonderful discussions.
Moreover, I am deeply thankful to my parents and my sister, Anne, for
supporting me throughout my life.
Finally, I want to thank Juliane dearly for being the best support one can imagine.
I dedicate this book to her.