Richard Schmidt

Richard Schmidt is a Ph.D. Candidate as well as a research and teaching fellow at Freie Universität Berlin. His dissertation focuses on the assessment of foreign election interference operations under international law. These operations are known to undermine public trust in democratic decision making processes and to increases a society’s susceptibility to democratic breakdown. The research will develop guidelines for a targeted application of international law that will hinder foreign election interference without infringing on human rights. Richard studied law in Berlin and Madrid. As one of the top two percent of law graduates in the State of Berlin, he has published in various papers in German and English, among which the German Yearbook of International Law and the Zeitschrift für Rechtspolitik. His articles have been cited, among others, by the German Constitutional Court. Since receiving his law degree in May 2020, he has taught human and fundamental rights courses as well as administrative law courses at Freie Universität and voluteered as a poll worker in the 2021 Berlin Regional and German Federal Elections.