Albin Eser was born in Leidersbach, Lower Franconia, Bavaria.
He served as a judge in German courts from 1971, and was director of the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg from 1991 to 1994, and Chairman of the Humanities and Social Sciences Section of the Max Planck Society from 1994 to 1997.
He was co-initiator of the Committee of Experts preparing the Draft Statute for an International Criminal Court ("Siracusa/Freiburg Draft") in 1995 and 1996, and was a member of the German delegation to the United Nations Diplomatic Conference for negotiations on the structure of the International Criminal Court.
from the University of Würzburg (doctor of both civil and canon law).
He was awarded the university medal from Warsaw University (2000) and is an honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest (1993) and the Japanese Society for Criminal Law (1992).