Thomas Thiede studied Law, Economics and Political Sciences at the → Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald, Germany where he obtained his Bachelor of Laws in 2003 having worked as an assistant for → Prof. Dr. Stefan Habermeier. He then went on to complete a Master of Laws (Comparative and EU Law) at the same institution followed by his First State Exam (Referendarsexamen) in October 2006.
Following this and having taken a position as a scientific assistant at the → Institute for European Tort Law of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, he began his doctoral studies under → Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bernhard Koch, LL.M. and → o.Univ.-Prof. i.R. Dr. Dr. h.c. Helmut Koziol. His thesis focused on the protection of personality rights from invasion by the mass media particularly in the context of cross border conflict of laws problems within Europe.
In 2010, he was awarded his doctorate summa cum laude from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and promoted to Junior Scientist at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. His thesis was published by → Jan Sramek Verlag and for this work he was awarded the → 2011 Franz-Gschnitzer Förderungpreis, thereby joining a respected fraternity of distinguished young scholars. In early 2013 he joined the esteemed ranks of the → Institute for Civil law, Foreign and Private International Law at the University of Graz, Austria, as a lecturer. Since Fall 2023 he is a Professor at the University of Graz. In September 2017 he was admitted to the bar in Germany and currently practises law at → Spieker & Jaeger Attorneys in Dortmund, Germany, since January 2022 as a partner.
His primary research interests are in comparative law, the conflict of laws, tort and antitrust law. He has presented extensively on his research and in doing so has participated at a wide range of → international conferences. He has also contributed to a number of → leading academic journals and edited collections alongside managing a range of projects at the Institute for European Tort Law. He is a Fellow of the → European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law (ECTIL) and the → European Law Institute (ELI) as well as a member of → Trans Europe Experts.
He is fluent in English and German and has a working knowledge of French and Russian and is keenly interested in the interface between information technology and both legal learning and scholarship. Away from law he has a passionate interest in → sailing.