During the Sommer Semester 2026, the third generation of exchange students in the DAAD SDG-Partnerships Project "Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals - India, Nepal and Germany" had the opportunity to attend classes in business and law, as well as conferences and excursions. Their final activities included three conferences and an excursion.
First, Prof. Dr. Winfried Huck, professor of International and European Economic Law, offered the students a conference titled “Legal Methodology as System Architecture: Foundations, Comparisons and Conceptualisation of AI-Supported Legal Knowledge”. The conference gave the students not only first-hand scientific information about the influence that AI-driven legal intelligence systems may have on the world and humanity’s future legal framework and governance, but also the opportunity to experience practical examples, such as Lexadq, a legal intelligence system, as well as other AI-supported analytical platforms. The students could also attest to Prof. Dr. Huck’s high creativity and engagement in generating music with the use of AI aimed at contributing towards policy discussions. Finally, Prof. Dr. Huck highlighted the necessity to differentiate between AI’s linguistic competence and genuine legal competence, noting that processing capability does not necessarily equate to an actual contextual legal understanding.
Another interesting conference was delivered by Mr Thomas Nass, a current master’s student at the Ostfalia Law Faculty and part of the first generation of DAAD Partnership Project exchange students in India. Mr Nass shared with the students his experience of organising three plantings and explained how this project, developed during his bachelor’s studies at Ostfalia within the course Sustainable Finance and the EU Green Deal in 2021, has grown since then through the involvement of different institutions and individuals. He also explained that this activity has helped raise environmental awareness not only at Ostfalia and in the city of Wolfenbüttel, but also in India, where he and his German classmates shared this initiative with professors and students at the Symbiosis Law School in Pune during their DAAD Interchange programme in 2024. During his conference, he also encouraged the students to contribute to sustainability through their own projects.
Accompanied by Prof. Dr. Till Zech, Professor of Tax Law, the students visited PKF Fasselt in Braunschweig, an established tax and auditing firm. There, in addition to providing more information about the German tax system, Prof. Dr. Zech and two representatives from PKF Fasselt detailed the firm’s legal and tax practice and outlined the requirements for practising in this area. The valuable information and insights gained during this visit enriched the students’ practical understanding of law, taxation and auditing. The students also presented their final research during the visit, deepening their knowledge of tax processes in countries such as Germany, India and Indonesia. Finally, during an informal lunch, Prof. Dr. Zech chatted with the students, allowing them to learn more about his extensive experience of the German tax system.
