Carolyn Moser

PhD, MA, Max Planck Research Group Leader (W2)

moser@mpil.de

Main Fields of Research:

Academic Career:

Dr. Carolyn Moser conducts research in the field of international and European law, with a special focus on security and defense in Europe. Her Max Planck research group ENSURE (European security revisited), which deals with the law and governance of European security in the new geopolitical age in an interdisciplinary way (law & political science), also bears witness to this thematic orientation. She is furthermore an adjunct lecturer at universities in Germany and France and affiliated with the Institute for European Integration in Hamburg.

Her key peer reviewed publications include a monograph on Accountability in EU Security and Defence (Oxford University Press, 2020) and a co-edited book on The Legal Framework of the OSCE (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Her most recent publications feature an in-depth analysis of on the prerogatives of the European Parliament in the field of European Security and Defense Policy and an interdisciplinary article on the (de)constitutionalization of security policies by the European Court of Justice (forthcoming in ICON).

Dr Moser received several awards and distinctions for her research, notably the Otto-Hahn-Medal and the European Court of Auditors Award. Moreover, she has successfully obtained prestigious funding for her research (including multi-year project funding from the German government, a Minerva Fast Track Fellowship from the Max Planck Society for outstanding postdocs, and funding for a Max Planck Group that is equivalent in scope to an ERC Advanced Grant). Her interdisciplinary expertise is solicited also beyond academic circles, for instance by EU and international institutions (eg European Parliament; OSCE; World Bank) and in the media (eg ZDF; NRD; ORF; SRF; Deutschlandfunk).

As regards her academic background, she was trained in both law and political science at Sciences Po Paris and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University, USA), and holds a PhD from Utrecht University on EU civilian crisis management. Moreover, her projects led her to conduct research at the Basel Institute on Governance, the European University Institut in Florence, and the Ludwig Maximilan University in Munich. From 2019 to 2022, she headed the Borderlines group at the MPIL in Heidelberg.

Recent Publications

• 
  Accountability in EU Security and Defence—The Law and Practice of Peacebuilding. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2020, 336 p. available on the OUP website
  

Reviewed  by Luigi Lonardo, Journal of Common Market Studies 6, 1636-1637 (2020)

• 
  The extent of the European Parliament’s competence in Common Security and Defence Policy. In-depth analysis requested by the SEDE sub-committee of the European Parliament, 2022 (with Steven Blockmans). open access version Pdf of the study (PDF, 914.2 KB)
  
• 
  La clause d’assistance mutuelle du Traité sur l’Union européenne (article 42§7 TUE) permet-elle de répondre adéquatement aux nouvelles menaces ?. E-Note series of the Royal High Institute for Defence (Belgium), 11.05.2022 (with Estelle Hoorickx). e-Note available online
  
• The CJEU and EU (de-)constitutionalization—unpacking jurisprudential responses. In: International Journal of Constitutional Law - (-), forthcoming (with Berthold Rittberger). Working Paper version
  

[more]



Constitutions and Contagion – European Constitutional Systems and the COVID-19 Pandemic. In: Heidelberg Journal of International Law (HJIL) 1, 147-234 (2021). Open access version




Loin de l’Union, loin des juges?—Sur les voies de recours juridictionnelles dans le cadre des activités de sécurité et de défense extraterritoriales de l’Union européenne. In: Rechtsweggarantie im vergleichenden Verwaltungsrecht, Layla Kristina Jaber, Stefanie Lüer, Anne-Marie Thévenot-Werner (eds.). Schwarze Reihe. Springer, Heidelberg 2021, 215-240. Springer online


Accountability and added value in EU security and defence activities. In: ECA Journal 3, 184-187 (2020). ECA issue 'Realising European added value'




France. In: A Human Rights and Rule of Law Assessment of Legislative and Regulatory Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic across 27 Jurisdictions. Bonavero Report No. 7. Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Oxford 2020, 163-176. Open access version


Hard Power Europe? In: Heidelberg Journal of International Law (HJIL) 1, 1-12 (2020). Open access version (PDF, 129.6 KB)




Accountability in a multi-jurisdictional order. In: Controlling EU Agencies. The Rule of Law in a Multi-jurisdictional Legal Order, Mira Scholten, Alex Brenninkmeijer (eds.). Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2020, 60-79 (with Gijs Jan Brandsma). available on the EE website




Frieden durch Recht aus französischer Perspektive. In: Frieden durch Recht. Rechtstraditionen und Verortungen, Sarah Jäger, Wolfgang S. Heinz (eds.). Springer, Wiesbaden 2020, 92-120. SpringerLink




The Legal Framework of the OSCE. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2019, 374 p. (editor with Mateja Steinbrück Platise, Anne Peters). available on CUP the website


Conceptualising accountability in the legal and institutional framework of the OSCE. In: The Legal Framework of the OSCE, Mateja Steinbrück Platise, Carolyn Moser, Anne Peters (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2019, 273-293.


Legal uncertainty and indeterminacy—immutable characteristics of the OSCE?. In: The Legal Framework of the OSCE, Mateja Steinbrück Platise, Carolyn Moser, Anne Peters (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2019, 3-25 (with Anne Peters).


The legal framework of the OSCE—an interdisciplinary inquiry. In: MPS Research report 2018. Max Planck Society, Munich 2019 (with Anne Peters, Mateja Steinbrück Platise). Open access version (German)


Bring claims if you can—On the intricate arrangements for claims arising from extraterritorial EU security and defence activities. In: ZaöRV 3, 575-579 (2018). Open access version


EU Civilian Crisis Management—Law and Practice of Accountability. -, Utrecht/Heidelberg, 2018, 336 p. Open access version


¿Union de droit, Union de sécurité? Sobre la interacción entre actuación interior y exterior respecto a los valores y normas de la UE. In: La jurisdicción constitucional en la tutela de los Derechos Funda-mentales de la Unión Europea, J.I. Ugartemendia/ A. Saiz Arnaiz/ M. Morales Antoniazzi (ed.). Instituto Vasco de Administración Pública; MPIL, Oñati 2017, 91-130.


Peace—Europe's Polyphonic Promise. In: MaxPlanckResearch 2, 10-15 (2015). Open access version




Revisiting the Union’s Common Security and Defence Policy: novel approaches and complementary insights. In: Public Administration 93 (1), 255-261 (2015). doi: 10.1111/padm.12150. available on the Wiley website




Conflict of interests of government members and the risk of corruption: An assessment of pre-revolutionary Tunisia and Egypt. In: Corruption and Conflict of Interests; A Comparative Law Approach, J.-B. Auby/ E. Breen/ T. Perroud (ed.). Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2014, 124-138. available on the EE website

Blogposts

• The war in Ukraine and its repercussions on Europe’s 'security and defence constitution'. ConstitutionNet, 22.09.2022. constitutionnet
  
• Is Berlin’s overdue defence policy adjustment also a 'game changer' for Franco-German relations?. Verfassungsblog, 07 April 2022. verfassungsblog
  
• Eine kurze Einführung in Frontex. Newsroom of the Max Planck Society, focus section '25 years Schengen area'; updated, enlarged and translated version of the Verfassungsblog post dated 3 February 2020, 20.03.2020. Website of the Max Planck Society
  
• Frontex goes Africa: On Pre-emptive Border Control and Migration Management. Verfassunsgblog, symposium 'Frontex—A Rising Star of Declining Europe?', 06.02.2020 (with Rabia Ferahkaya, Lukas Märtin). verfassungsblog
  
• A very short introduction to Frontex—unravelling the trajectory of one of the EU’s key actors. Verfassungsblog, symposium 'Frontex—A Rising Star of Declining Europe?', 03.02.2020. verfassungsblog
  

[more]

Integrating Contrasting Approaches: Civil–Military Cooperation in CSDP. PeaceLab, 07.01.2020. peacelab.blog


Two Become One? On the Civil–Military Amalgamation of the CSDP. Verfassungsblog, 30.03.2019. verfassungsblog


Curtailing (informal) power—accountability lessons from the civilian dimension of EU security and defence. EU Law Enforcement, 31.03.2018. eulawenforcement


Awakening dormant law—or the invocation of the European mutual assistance clause after the Paris attacks. Verfassungsblog, 18.11.2015, also published on www.voelkerrechtsblog.com. verfassungsblog


French Constitutional Council puts an end to the plurality of offices. Verfassungsblog, 12.3.2014. verfassungsblog

Working Papers

• The CJEU and EU (De)constitutionalization—Unpacking Jurisprudential Strategies. MPIL Research Paper Series, 2021 (with Berthold Rittberger). MPIL Research Paper No. 2021-09
  
• Constitutions and Contagion. European Constitutional Systems and the COVID-19 Pandemic. MPIL Research Paper Series, 2020 (with Angelo Golia, Laura Hering, Tom Sparks). MPIL Research Paper No. 2020-42
  
• Loin de l’Union, loin des juges? Sur les voies de recours juridictionnelles dans le cadre des activités de sécurité et de défense extraterritoriales de l’Union européenne (Out of the EU, Out of Judicial Reach? On the Means of Recourse in the Context of the Union’s Extraterritorial Security and Defence Activities). MPIL Research Paper Series, 2020. MPIL Research Paper No. 2020-12
  
• Reparation for Victims of Armed Conflict: Impulses from the Max Planck Trialogues. MPIL Research Paper Series, 2018 (with Christian Marxsen, Anne Peters, et alii). MPIL Research Paper No. 2018-19
  
• Conceptualising accountability in the legal and institutional framework of the OSCE. MPIL Research Paper Series, 2018. MPIL Research Paper No. 2018-17
  
• Legal uncertainty and indeterminacy—immutable characteristics of the OSCE?. MPIL Research Paper Series, 2018. MPIL Research Paper No. 2018-16
  

Media

Zeitenwende in Europa

Interview with Julia Weigelt for the NDR Info Podcast "Streitkräfte und Strategien" (armed forces and strategies) about the geopolitical awakening in Europe and the EU in the wake of the war in Ukraine, available online (in German) here

Global (dis)order and International Law

Watch the video on the MPIL's Youtube channel
(own input starting at 29'20)

Panel discussion (in German language) with Carlo Masala (Bundeswehr University, Munich), Anne Peters (MPIL) and Christian Marxsen (MPIL) about the legal and political parameters of German foreign and security policy, and the challenges in this policy field the German government resulting from the 2021 general elections is likely to face.

Europe and its migration and border management

Interview with the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRF) on migration, border control and in particular Frontex, streamed on 3 June 2021 and available as podcast

The unsettled post-Brexit Legal Status of the EU and its Representatives in the UK

Watch the video on the MPIL's Youtube channel

Only three weeks after the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the UK provisionally came into force on 1st January 2021, hence sealing the UK–EU divorce, we could already witness the first post-Brexit diplomatic incident. Indeed, as became public on 21st January 2021 London refused to confer the EU’s delegation to the UK—including its ambassador, João Vale de Almeida—the diplomatic status offered by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Instead, the UK said it would classify the EU as an international organization, implying that the Union’s representatives would enjoy more restricted privileges and immunities. The EU, in response, posited that the Union was not a typical international organization and should therefore, in line with well-established international practice, receive a distinctive treatment when it comes to diplomatic status questions. In light of these developments, Dr Carolyn Moser, first rehashes the basics of diplomatic privileges and immunities, then sheds light on the Union’s international role and subsequent diplomatic status, and finally discusses the UK’s legal stance on the matter.

Nota bene: On 5th May 2021 it was announced that the UK had eventually accorded the EU's head of mission a diplomatic status in accordance with the Vienna Convention, that is the one of a state representative.

COVID-19 and the French Constitutional System

Watch the video on the MPIL's Youtube channel

In this video, Dr Carolyn Moser analyses the way in which the French authorities dealt with the pandemic, with a focus on the first wave. Next to sketching out the regulatory and legislative response of the French institutions to COVID-19, in particular the novel state of health emergency, she also discusses matters of democratic accountability and judicial review. She shows how and why the health emergency caused by the coronavirus has reconfirmed some of the Republic’s most central constitutional patterns and legal traditions, namely centralization, executive governance with limited parliamentary involvement, and administrative courts acting as guardians of individual freedoms.

Unsere fremden Grenzen. Europas Türsteher am Rande der Sahara

Interviewee, radio feature (in German language) by Christian Jakob, RBB Kultur, 16.12.2020, audio recording

Das Völkerrecht—Spielregeln gegen die globale Unordnung

Contributor to a radio programme on the international law and politics edited by Brigitte Voykowitsch [in German], ORF Radiokolleg, 24 – 27 February 2020

Presentations

Teaching

Participation in Conferences at Home and Abroad

Honours

Miscellaneous