Tom Hick

Tom Hick is an Assistant Professor at the Private Law Department of IE University. He teaches Property Law and the Introduction to Private Law.

Previously he has been Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for comparative and international private law, Hamburg and held positions as visiting professor at Universidad Central de Chile and visiting researcher at the Kyoto University Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Law and Policy (KILAP), at UNIDROIT in Rome and the Centre for Private Governance (CEPRI) of the University of Copenhagen.

He is a member of the European Law Institute (ELI) and the Society of European Contract Law (SECOLA), as well as related to the initiative on social justice in private law.

His research combines theoretical insights with comparative private law scholarship, bridging the gap between both. He focusses on power relations in and through private law, specifically how private law creates and potentially exacerbates power relations between parties. His publications span various fields of private law, such as contract, liability, and enrichment law.

Academic Experience

Assistant Professor, Private Law Department , IE University, Spain, 2026–present
Visiting Researcher, Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Law and Policy, Kyoto, Japan, 2026
Visiting Professor, Universidad Central de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile, 2025
Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for comparative and international private law, Germany, 2024–2026
Ph.D. student, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, 2018-2024