Biography

Summary

Nikolai Badenhoop is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE in Frankfurt. He held a Max Weber Fellowship at the European University Institute’s Law Department from 2021 to 2022. He is a legal scholar whose research covers European Union law, financial regulation, competition, contract and tort law, corporate governance, consumer protection, professional secrecy and Brexit. Nikolai currently focuses on sustainable finance.

As a European Lawyer, he holds law degrees from Humboldt University Berlin (German state examination), Sapienza University of Rome (Laurea Magistrale in Giurisprudenza) and King’s College London (LL.M.). Nikolai obtained his Ph.D. from Humboldt University Berlin and published a book exploring EU banking regulation and its impact on national private law. He speaks English, German, French, Italian and Spanish fluently.

Nikolai gained practical experience working several years for international law firms in London and Berlin, the German Federal Ministry of Finance and a leading European start-up bank.  He is a fully qualified lawyer (Volljurist) and holds the necessary qualification to become a judge in Germany. Nikolai’s teaching experience includes courses at bachelor, master and PhD levels at Sapienza University of Rome and the EUI’s Department of Law. He teaches at the Florence School of Banking and Finance on ‘Green bonds and the sustainable bond market‘.

Currently, Nikolai focuses on sustainable finance in the EU legal framework. His research reaches from the definition of environmental, social and governance sustainability goals to their implementation within financial markets, banking regulation and corporate law. Starting from the European Green Deal, he analyses how existing regulatory tools impact sustainability goals and how the tools can be enhanced to increase sustainability. As a legal expert, Nikolai delivered an independent and objective study on the proposed EU Green Bond Standard at the request of the European Parliament’s ECON committee to support its legislative work. During trilogues, he presented his study at the European Parliament.

Nikolai’s research has attracted news coverage, including interviews and reports on the green bond study by Bloomberg and the FT Group. His recent paper on greening supply chains and their financing under EU law was quoted by the Financial Times.

Publications

Expertise study

• Green Bonds: An assessment of the proposed EU Green Bond Standard and its potential to prevent greenwashing, Publication for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament, Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies, European Parliament, Luxembourg (April 2022)

        News reports on the study and interviews:

        Bloomberg, 29 April 2022, Greg Ritchie 
        ‘Greenwashing Spurs Call to Give EU Bondholders Legal Protection’

        Financial Times, Sustainable Views, 9 May 2022, Victor Smart
        ‘Regulatory Briefing: EU considers stricter green bond standards’

        Financial Times, Sustainable Views, 10 May 2022, Simon Watkins
        ‘Independent reviews key to green bonds, says EU research author’

Peer-reviewed articles in law journals

• Private Law Duties Deriving From EU Banking Regulation and its Individual Protection Goals, 16(2) European Review of Contract Law (2020) 233–266

• Towards a Single Standard of Professional Secrecy for Financial Sector Supervisory Authorities – A Reform Proposal, 44 (3) European Law Review (2019) 295-318 (with René Smits)

• Financial Services and Brexit – Navigating Towards Future Market Access, 19(4) European Business Organization Law Review (2018) 679-714 (with Henning Berger)
  

Book

• Europäische Bankenregulierung und private Haftung – Die Durchsetzung von System- und Individualschutz mit Mitteln des Privatrechts, Schriften zum Unternehmens- und Kapitalmarktrecht, Band 81 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020)
  

        Book review: Maria Lucia Passador, Banca, borsa, titoli di credito 74 (2021) 463–464

Commentary

• Balancing Confidentiality and Transparency: The ECSPR Professional Secrecy Standard in Light of Cross-Sectoral EU Financial Regulation and ECJ Case Law, Chapter 28 on Article 35 ECSPR Professional Secrecy, in Eugenia Macchiavello (ed), Regulation on European Crowdfunding Service Providers for Business: A Commentary (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2022)
  

Contributions to books

• Greening Supply Chains and Their Financing under EU Law, in David Snyder and Susan Maslow (eds), Contracts for Responsible and Sustainable Supply Chains: Model Clauses, Legal Analysis, and Practical Discussion (American Bar Association, forthcoming 2023)
  

       News report quoting the paper and interview:

       Financial Times, 20 September 2022, Claire Jones
       ‘European companies forced to take a closer look at supply chains’

• The Individual Protection Goal in EU Banking Regulation – A Process Towards Private Law Enforcement, in Stefan Grundmann and Pietro Sirena (eds), European Contract Law in the Banking and Financial Union (Cambridge: Intersentia, forthcoming 2022)
  

Articles in law journals

• Brexit – Folgen für Kreditinstitute, Wertpapier-Mitteilungen (2018) 1078-1085 (with Henning Berger)

• A dignidade humana e os novos direitos no direito comparado: a discussão sobre a clonagem no direito constitucional alemão, Revista Brasileira de Direitos Fundamentais e Justiça 2011, 227-243 (with Ana Paula Barbosa-Fohrmann)
  

Case note

• Banking Communication Non-binding and Burden-sharing Approved: Kotnik,13(3) European Review of Contract Law (2017) 299–309 

Miscellaneous

• The Education of Lawyers in Italy,
  Sapienza Legal Papers 2014-2015, Parte Seconda, 141-142
  

Education

2021    Second German legal state examination at the Higher Regional Court of Berlin

2019    Ph.D. in Law from Humboldt University Berlin on “European banking regulation and private liability

2010-2016    Graduate and postgraduate law studies in the European Law School:

• First German legal state examination in Berlin (Humboldt University of Berlin)
  
• Laurea Magistrale in Giurisprudenza (Sapienza University of Rome)
  
• LL.M. on financial regulation and commercial arbitration (King’s College London)
  

2009    German A-level (Abitur)

2007    French A-level (Baccalauréat Littéraire)

Languages

English (near native – C2)

French (near native – C2)

Italian (near native – C2) 

Spanish (excellent command – C1)

Latin (proficient reader)

German (native speaker)