About
Hi! I am a lawyer and currently an academic employee at Potsdam University of Applied Sciences and a PhD candidate at the Centre of European Law and Politics (ZERP) at the University of Bremen.
I am interested in questions of legal theory and legal doctrine—especially within constitutional law—concerning the interaction of legal systems, and human rights, in particular political rights and democracy. I like to use and learn about socio-legal methods.
I studied law at the University of Hamburg (2013-2019) with a Friedrich Ebert Foundation scholarship. In Hamburg, I was a student assistant for the Cyber Law Clinic (Chair of Public Law, Information and Communication Law, Health Law and Legal Theory) and a member of the student council (critical law students). From 2019 to 2024 I worked as a doctoral researcher at the Chair of Public Law, in particular Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Philosophy of Law and Transnational Law at the Centre of European Law and Politics, University of Bremen. During that time, I visited the Global Governance Center at the Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID) as a Junior Visiting Fellow. I hold memberships at OpenRewi, Kritische Rechtswissenschaft, Junge Wissenschaft im Öffentlichen Recht, the International Society of Public Law (ICON•S) and the initiative #nichtzweimal. Since 2022 I am a PhD scholarship holder of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.
Publications
Edited book
Interaktionen. Internationalität, Intra- und Interdisziplinarität
63. Junge Tagung Öffentliches Recht, 2024 (with Larissa Bahmer, Clarissa Barth, Hannah Franz, Shari Gaffron, Katharina Goldberg, Christina Jacobs, Josina Johannsen, Rebecca Kruse, Friederike Löbbert, Hans Flemming Maltzahn, Maike Middeler, Louisa Schmalhorst, Charlotte Schneeberger, Ester Schukajlow, Vanessa Steinert and Lennart Westmark)
This volume brings together the papers presented to a large audience at the 63rd Young Public Law Conference that I co-organized. They all revolve around “interactions” in one of the dimensions of the conference as defined by the editors: internationality, interdisciplinarity and internationality.
Contributions to edited books
Wahlen
Valentina Chiofalo, Jaschar Kohal, Louisa Linke (editors): Staatsorganisationsrecht. Klausur- und Examenswissen, 2022, p. 147–162
This is one of the chapters that I contributed to the first open access textbook on state organizational law in Germany. The book was created as part of the “OpenRewi” initiative. This chapter deals with the constitutional requirements for electoral law.
Grundrechtsfähigkeit und -berechtigung juristischer Personen
Lisa Hahn, Maximilian Petras, Dana Valentiner and Nora Wienfort (editors): Grundrechte. Klausur- und Examenswissen, 2022, p. 28–38
This is a chapter from another OpenRewi textbook, the first in open access on fundamental rights. My chapter deals with the fundamental rights capacity of legal persons and the relevant provision in Article 19(3) of the Basic Law.
Europarecht
Lisa Hahn, Maximilian Petras, Dana Valentiner and Nora Wienfort (editors): Grundrechte. Klausur- und Examenswissen, 2022, p. 175–193 (with Alexander Brade)
This is another chapter from the same textbook. It deals with the relationship between the fundamental rights provisions of the European Union, also in relation to the ECHR, and the fundamental rights provisions of the Basic Law.
Völkerrecht
Lisa Hahn, Maximilian Petras, Dana Valentiner and Nora Wienfort (editors): Grundrechte. Klausur- und Examenswissen, 2022, p. 194–211 (with Alexander Brade)
This chapter of the textbook deals with the relationship between human rights norms of international law, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the German Basic Law. The focus is on the ECHR, but the international covenants in particular are also discussed.
Landesverfassungen in Deutschland
Lisa Hahn, Maximilian Petras, Dana Valentiner and Nora Wienfort (editors): Grundrechte. Klausur- und Examenswissen, 2022, p. 212–218 (with Alexander Brade)
Finally, this chapter deals with the fundamental rights provisions contained in the state constitutions of the German federal states and their relationship to the Basic Law.
Verfassungsmäßigkeit von Internetwahlen? Neukonzeption eines Bewertungsmaßstabs für innovative Wahlmethoden
Ruth Greve, Benjamin Gwiasda, Thomas Kemper, Joshua Moir, Sabrina Müller, Arno Schönberger, Sebastian Stöcker, Julia Wagner and Lydia Wolff (editors): Der digitalisierte Staat – Chancen und Herausforderungen für den modernen Staat, 2020, S. 299–319
This article is based on the paper I presented at the 60th Young Public Law Conference in 2020. It deals with the question of whether it would be constitutionally permissible in Germany to hold elections via the internet. Since a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court on the unconstitutionality of voting machines, internet voting has been deemed inadmissible. I propose an alternative constitutionality test that is also suitable for evaluating other innovative voting methods and takes into account empirical findings from other disciplines.
Elektronische Abstimmungen in den politischen Parteien und die Wahlgrundsätze
Marion Albers and Ioannis Katsivelas (editors): Recht & Netz, 2018, p. 375–394
This article, which was written during my time as a student employee at the Cyber Law Clinic at the University of Hamburg, deals with the question of whether the use of electronic voting methods at party conferences is constitutionally permissible. In addition, it deals with the fundamental question of the extent to which parties are bound by the standards set for government institutions under Article 21 of the German Basic Law.
Journal articles
Verfahrenswiederaufnahme bei Mordverdacht: Großer Wurf aus Karlsruhe? Bericht von der mündlichen Verhandlung um § 362 Nr. 5 StPO
Berliner Anwaltsblatt 2023, p. 535–537 (with Arne Nis Meyn)
This article reports on the oral proceedings in the matter of the “Law for the Establishment of Material Justice” (Gesetz zur Herstellung materieller Gerechtigkeit) before the German Federal Constitutional Court on March 24, 2023. On October 31, 2023, the court ruled that the law, which provided for an exception to the double prosecution ban for certain crimes, was unconstitutional because it violated this principle.
Offene Rechtswissenschaft – Chancen einer Open-Science-Transformation –
Recht und Zugang 2022, p. 50–76 (with Saskia Ebert, Nikolas Eisentraut, Katharina Goldberg, Rhea Nachtigall, Maximilian Petras and Lars Wasnick)
This article sheds light on the potentials and difficulties in the transformation of legal publishing practices towards Open Access. It was written as part of the “OpenRewi” initiative.
Wiederaufnahme nach § 362 Nr. 5 StPO. Wer muss sie fürchten, wer kann sich wehren?
Berliner Anwaltsblatt 2021, p. 424–427 (with Arne Nis Meyn)
This article deals with the question of which groups of people with what degree of personal involvement are in a procedural position to challenge the “Act on the Establishment of Substantive Justice” directly before the Federal Constitutional Court. In retrospect, the only person to whom the law was applied successfully challenged it before the court.
Zur Recht- und Zweckmäßigkeit der neuen Regelung zum Ausschluss von der Parteienfinanzierung
Hamburger Rechtsnotizen 2017, p. 12–16
The article discusses the legality and expediency of new regulations in constitutional law that allow parties that pursue anti-constitutional goals but cannot be banned due to their minor importance to be excluded from state party funding. The regulation was created in the wake of a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court, in which the court for the first time made the significance of the party a condition for a party ban.
Online articles and smaller pieces
Besetzte Orte. Die Einwirkung der Versammlungsfreiheit auf das Straf(prozess)recht im Zusammenhang mit Protestbesetzungen
Verfassungsblog, 13.12.2022 (with Fynn Wenglarczyk)
In response to the frequent occupation of lecture halls by students, we raise the question of whether there is a middle way between impunity and full application of the criminal law. An interpretation of the criminal procedural law that protects constitutional freedoms, especially in the university as a space for discourse, is necessary and possible.
OpenRewi-Zitierguide
05.05.2022 (with Lisa Hahn, Rhea Nachtigall and Maximilian Petras)
As part of the “OpenRewi” initiative, which has systematically set about developing open access and open educational resources standards for German legal scholarship, the need arose for a citation style that better reflects the requirements of accessibility and transparency.
Zweimal in derselben Sache – Rechtsschutz gegen den neuen § 362 Nr. 5 StPO
JuWissBlog, 31.08.2021 (mit Arne Meyn)
A blog post about legal protection options against the “Law on the Establishment of Material Justice”.
Tagungsbericht: „Ressourcen der Rechtskritik: Methodische Reflexion und kritische Praxis“
26.08.2020
A conference report on the conference “Resources of Legal Criticism: Methodical Reflection and Critical Practice”, which took place online on August 26, 2020. It reports on the contributions of Robin Celikates, Ino Augsberg, Tatjana Sheplyakova, Tim Wihl, Sabine Müller-Mall, Alexander Stark, Hannah Birkenkötter, Pauline Weller and Boris Burghardt, and Bernard Harcourt. They have subsequently been published in a
KJ special issue.
Lasse Ramson über Albrecht Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Der Volkswille: Grundzüge einer Verfassung (1919)
Politk 100x100. Blog des Fachgebiets Politikwissenschaft an der Universität Hamburg, 21.11.2019
As part of the 100th anniversary of the University of Hamburg, I was asked to contribute to the blog of the Department of Political Science about Albrecht Mendelssohn Bartholdy. He was one of the most important lawyers in the history of the university. The article deals with one of his works and places it in a contemporary historical context.
Zwangshaft gegen (bayrische) Amtsträger?
JuWissBlog, 08.01.2019
In 2018/19, various public officials refused to comply with court rulings to issue driving bans to improve air quality. In this context, the question was raised as to whether it is permissible—and possibly even required under EU law—to take public officials into enforcement custody. This blog post deals with the history of the provisions on coercive detention from the German Code of Administrative Court Procedure in order to dispel some common misconceptions.
Legal Challenges and Historic Opportunities for a European Constitution
The New Federalist, 19.05.2018
In response to reform proposals for the EU's constitutional order put forward by Emmanuel Macron and Martin Schulz, this article offers some thoughts on a possible constitutional process.
Des Bundespräsidenten Prüfungsrecht
JuWissBlog, 24.08.2017
Based on a recent case, the article discusses the scope and limits of the German Federal President's right of scrutiny in the legislative process.
Die Demokratie hält es aus. Das NPD-Parteiverbotsurteil des BVerfG
JuWissBlog, 25.01.2017 (with Sven Jürgensen)
The article discusses the implications of the Federal Constitution Court's decision to not ban the right-wing extremist National Party (NPD)