Carolyn Moser

PhD, MA, Research Group Leader (Minerva Fast Track)

moser@mpil.de

Main Fields of Research:

Academic Career:

Dr Carolyn Moser heads the research group borderlines, which investigates the governance credentials of (novel) EU security policies. She is also a Lecturer in Lille (Catholic University) as well as in Trier, and moreover teaches in Heidelberg. Prior to joining the Max Planck Institute as a PhD candidate (2013–17) and later as a Senior Researcher (2017–19), Carolyn worked on anti-corruption projects in Africa and Asia for the World Bank and the GIZ as a Research Fellow at the Basel Institute on Governance (2011–13), and also served as an assistant at the University of Basel (2011). She held visiting researcher positions at the EUI in Florence (2016) and at the LMU in Munich (2020), and was appointed as Research Fellow at the Institute for European Integration in Hamburg in 2019.

Carolyn researches in the fields of international law and European law, with a focus on security and defence. She is particularly interested in how European actors face new security challenges related, inter alia, to border management, cyber resilience, and global health, and how, in turn, this (re)configures the legal and institutional framework in place. Her key peer reviewed publications include a monograph on Accountability in EU Security in Defence (Oxford University Press, 2020) and a co-edited book on The Legal Framework of the OSCE (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Trained in law and political science at Sciences Po (Paris) and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University, USA), Carolyn holds a PhD from Utrecht University (2018) with a thesis on EU civilian crisis management, for which she was awarded the prestigious Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society. Her book Accountability in EU Security and Defence. The Law and Practice of Peacebuilding, which is based on her PhD thesis and was published in 2020 with Oxford University Press, won the 2020 ECA Award conferred by the European Court of Auditors for an academic contribution demonstrating the 'EU added value' in external action. Her academic recognitions furthermore include a multi-annual grant for a research group by the Max Planck Society under the Minerva Fast-Track scheme.

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)

• 
  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'
  

[more]



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

• 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. Verfassunsblog, symposium 'Frontex—A Rising Star of Declining Europe?', 06.02.2020 (with Rabia Ferahkaya, Lukas Märtin). verfassungsblog.com
  
• A very short introduction to Frontex—unravelling the trajectory of one of the EU’s key actors. Verfassunsblog, symposium 'Frontex—A Rising Star of Declining Europe?', 03.02.2020. verfassungsblog.com
  
• 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.com
  
• Curtailing (informal) power—accountability lessons from the civilian dimension of EU security and defence. EU Law Enforcement, 31.03.2018. www.eulawenforcement.com
  
• 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. www.verfassungsblog.com
  
• French Constitutional Council puts an end to the plurality of offices, 12.3.2014. www.verfassungsblog.com
  

Working Papers

• The CJEU and EU (De)constitutionalization—Unpacking Jurisprudential Strategies. MPIL Research Paper No. 2021-09, 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

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