Professor Sebastian Heselhaus, born in 1960 in Münster, Westphalia, is Professor Ordinarius of European Law, International Law, Public Law and Comparative Law at the School of Law at the University of Lucerne.

Sebastian Heselhaus studied law at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen from 1981–1987, specialising in European and International Law. He simultaneously studied Political Science and Philosophy from 1982–1988, which enabled him to undertake better analysis of law in context. His study was funded by a grant from the German National Academic Foundation, which enabled him to spend time abroad at the United Nations in New York and the London School of Economics. After completing his clerkship (legal internship) at the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main, Sebastian Heselhaus completed his doctorate in 1999 with a dissertation on Abgabenhoheit der Europäischen Gemeinschaft in der Umweltpolitik (the fiscal authority of the European Community in environmental policy). His post-doctoral thesis deals with rights of participation in multi-level governance. His publications include a variety of documents on international law, European law and public law in line with his approach, which involves dealing with law vertically in relation to interlinked levels of regulation.

Sebastian Heselhaus has many years of experience supervising the Telders International Law Moot Court in English, and the René Cassin European Human Rights Moot Court Competition in French. He has also taught in English at the universities of Madison in the USA and Warwick in the UK. He has primarily adopted an interdisciplinary approach in the academic conferences that he has co-organised. Since 2015 Sebastian Heselhaus is Director of the Lucerne Academy for Human Rights Implementation.