[2] In 1994, Limbach was appointed to the position of vice-president of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, the same year she became president, succeeding Roman Herzog.

In 2005 and 2006 Limbach was a member of the Group of Wise Persons who was tasked by the Council of Europe to develop strategies how to manage the workload of the European Court of Human Rights.

[1] In 2010, Limbach in an interview proposed that liberal human rights activist Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger be made a judge at the court, praising her "intellectual honesty";[6] instead, Andreas Voßkuhle was nominated by the SPD.

In 2013 Limbach was awarded the Mercator Visiting Professorship for Political Management at the University of Duisburg-Essen's NRW School of Governance.

[7] From 2003, Limbach headed the so-called Limbach Commission (Advisory Commission on the return of cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution, especially Jewish property),[1] a panel convened by the German government to give recommendations on restitution claims regarding art works stolen or purchased under duress by the Nazis; the panel's decisions are not legally binding but are intended as a form of mediation in disputes over provenance.

[8] The eight members of the commission are charged by Germany's federal, state and local governments with helping to return art looted by the Nazis to its rightful owners gathered for the first time.