Tanzanian-German Centre for Eastern African Legal Studies 

More than ten years ago, the University of Bayreuth and the University of Dar es Salaam launched a successful and forward-looking cooperation project as part of the African Excellence - Fachzentren Afrika funding programme financed by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The Tanzanian-German Centre for Eastern African Legal Studies (TGCL) offers structured and highly specialised master's and doctoral programmes for future decision-makers and executives from the six partner states of the East African Community. In close cooperation with the African Legal Studies research group established in 2019 at the University of Bayreuth, students from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda are trained at the University of Dar es Salaam School of Law. The focus of the international and interdisciplinary curriculum is on the law of regional integration with special consideration of the law of the East African Community. Tying in with the comparative law concept of the postgraduate programme, the courses also provide insights into the German legal system and take into account the legal and political structures of the European Union.

Since 2008, more than 150 master's students and more than 25 doctoral students have successfully completed the study programme at TGCL. They thus not only have outstanding substantive knowledge of legal harmonisation and legal integration, but also excellent methodological skills for legal pluralistic issues in theory and practice. As graduates, they now hold leading positions at national, regional, and international level, and contribute decisively to legal, political, and economic development in East Africa. As high-ranking employees in Supreme Courts, bar associations, embassies, authorities, and universities in the East African Community, they become important contacts for the networking of TGCL and its students in the region. As multipliers, they contribute to the training of the next generation and to raising the profile of the still young field of research into East African Community Law. Today, alumni form a committed and active network with well over 100 members, which provides numerous exchange forums and regularly organises workshops and conferences with top-class guests. In this regard, the conference TGCL Alumni Perspectives on the Challenges and Opportunities of Regional Integration in East Africa, which took place in Dar es Salaam in September 2018 in the presence of the President of the University of Bayreuth, Prof. Dr. Stefan Leible, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the TGCL, deserves special mention. 

Furthermore, the alumni of TGCL remain connected to the University of Bayreuth in many ways, be it through participation in lecture series, stays as visiting scholars or for doctoral studies at the University's Faculty of Law, Business & Economics. TGCL Alumni and lecturers are also regularly involved in joint research projects between the University of Bayreuth and the University of Dar es Salaam. Within the framework of the research project Human Rights, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Interacting Markets in Africa (2019-2023), based at the Cluster of Excellence Africa Multiple, scholars from Bayreuth and East Africa are currently investigating the consideration of collective human rights in private international law and in regional economic communities. From a legal pluralist perspective, they analyse and discuss the interconnections between collective human rights, corporate responsibility, and ecological challenges.

In addition to the ongoing cooperation between Bayreuth and Dar es Salaam, TGCL has also contributed to the networking of the University of Bayreuth with comparable regional cooperations at other German universities. In September 2020, for example, TGCL launched the Chilean-German-Tanzanian-Legal-Talk lecture series together with the Heidelberg Center for Latin America (HCLA), which brought together more than 40 academics and students from East Africa, Latin America, and Germany at the digital kick-off event. After a continuation of the series with presentations on legal conflicts and protection mechanisms in the context of water resources, and on the still young juris-prudence in the field of climate litigation, the fourth event took place in December 2021, which finally focused on legal pluralism and human rights.

The diverse activities of TGCL will continue to promote the lively German-Tanzanian research cooperation and constantly advance the networking of the University of Bayreuth in the national and international scientific landscape.