At the University of Frankfurt an der Oder, van Aaken was promoted Doctor of Law Dr. iur.
Zum Stellenwert der ökonomischen Theorie im Recht)[4] She graduated from the Second Legal State Exam in 2002 and since 2003 she has been admitted to the bar in Bonn.
[5] From 1998 to 2000, van Aaken worked as a research assistant in the field of economic policy at the University of Fribourg, then to 2003 as a research associate at the chair of German, European and international civil and commercial law and Institutional Economics at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
[6] In 2017, van Aaken won an Alexander von Humboldt-Professorship in Germany, at the University of Hamburg.
She has taught in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the United States (at New York University as a Global Law Professor).