Erik Hahn is Professor of Law (Social Law and Health Law) at the Zittau/Görlitz University oAS (Faculty of Social Sciences), lectures at the International University Institute of the Dresden University of Technology (Central European Campus Nisa with the Liberec University of Technology), and serves as Deputy Director of the Görlitz Institute for Health, Aging, Work and Technology. Furthermore, he is Co-Scientific Director of the LL.M. Program "Medical Law" at the Dresden International University (affiliated institute of the Dresden University of Technology) and long-term Visiting Professor of Law (EU Law, Health and Social Security Law) at the Faculty of Law of the Rīga Stradiņš University.
After graduating in law from the Universities of Leipzig and Halle-Wittenberg (2003-2008), Erik Hahn obtained his doctorate from the Faculty of Law at the Leipzig University in 2010. Subsequently, he completed his legal clerkship and then joined the judiciary of the Free State of Saxony. After serving as a public prosecutor in Leipzig and as a judge at the Dresden Social Court, he was appointed to a professorship at the North German University of Law in Hildesheim in 2015, which he held until his transfer to Görlitz (2016). In 2021, he received another doctorate from the Faculty of Medicine of the Dresden University of Technology with a thesis on a topic related to the history of Health Law. In 2022 he habilitated at the Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences of the Brandenburg University of Technology with a publication on legal issues of the digitalization of the treatment relationship and received the university teaching qualification in the in fields "Public Law, in particular Medical and Social Law, and European Law". In the same year he was appointed as judge at the Higher Social Court of the State of Saxony. He has held further visiting positions such as visiting professorships and fellowships e.g. in the United States (Harvard Law School), Greece (International Hellenic University), Latvia (multiple) and China (National Judges College of the People's Republic of China).
His research focuses on the entire field of Social Law (including Basic Security/Social assistance, Social Insurance Law, EU Coordination of Social Security and the Law of Child and Youth Welfare), Medical and Health Law (with a special focus on digitalization and European legal issues), Law of Social Work and Services, Law of Health and Social Professionals as well as social legal issues of housing. He also deals with the law of closed accommodation in psychiatric institutions and compulsory treatment, the law of guardianship and the general legal issues of psychiatric care.
In addition to his research and teaching activities, Erik Hahn dedicates himself to intensive exchange with practitioners and participates in various interdisciplinary projects, commissions and working groups. He has practical experience from his work as chairman, deputy chairman and honorary member of various state committees, arbitration boards and offices from the area of the German Social Code V and the Federal Nursing Act. Furthermore, he is a member of the Ethics Committee of the Medical Association of Saxony and a member of the working group "physicians and lawyers" of the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies of Germany (AWMF). He has written legal opinions for various ministries, companies and other institutions in the social and health care sector, occasionally acts as an arbitrator or judge in arbitration proceedings and as a lecturer in the training of specialist lawyers and judges.