Mattias Kumm
- Inge Rennert Professor of Law
- mattias.kumm@nyu.edu
- Vanderbilt Hall 402 • 212.992.8830
AREAS OF RESEARCH
Comparative Constitutional Law, European Union Law, International Law, Legal Philosophy
Mattias Kumm’s research and publications focus on basic issues in European and comparative constitutional law, international law, and philosophy of law. Kumm joined NYU School of Law in 2000 after studies in law, philosophy, and political science in Kiel, Germany, and Paris and doctorate work at Harvard University. He holds a part-time joint appointment as a professor for global public law at the WZB Social Science Research Center and Humboldt University, both in Berlin. He has held visiting appointments at Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, and the European University Institute (Florence), and has lectured at other leading universities worldwide. Kumm is a founding editor and editor-in-chief of Global Constitutionalism (Cambridge University Press) and on the board of I•CON and other journals, as well as a member of the faculty advisory committee of the Institute for International Law and Justice at NYU Law.
“An Empire of Capital?”
Courses
-
Constitutional Law of Europe: The EU, its Member States and the ECHR
This course examines the basic structures of the law of the European Union and the European Convention of Human Rights and its impact on its Member States. We will study legal texts, decisions and doctrines in their respective political contexts asking questions such as: What are the requirements of a transnational rule of law? To what extent should national courts recognize EU Law as the supreme law of the land? In which way does the establishment of a common market require the making of political choices and who makes them? What requirements must decisions by transnational institutions meet to be legitimate? Do European institutions meet them? How should Human Rights be protected in Europe? What are the respective roles of Member States, the ECJ and the ECHR? Substantive rights issues we will look at include the protection of freedom of religion and rights issues connected to antiterrorism measures.
-
International Law
This course provides a historically and theoretically informed doctrinally focused introduction to international law as it has developed after World War II. Topics covered include: The sources of International law, the relationship between national and international law, the subjects of international law, the law of treaties, state responsibility, human rights and the use of force. Background themes that will concern us as we discuss concrete institutional and doctrinal issues are: What accounts for the crisis that international law is currently in? What would be needed to overcome it?
-
Introduction to Legal Philosophy
The philosophy of law studies basic problems raised by the existence and practice of law. In this course we'll systematically explore some core issues in legal philosophy, often by way of a close reading and discussion of modern classics (including Hart, Kelsen, Raz, Dworkin, Alexy, Arendt, Carl Schmitt, Rawls, Habermas). Questions we'll focus on include: What is law? What is its connection to justice? Is there a duty to obey the law? Is international law fundamentally different from domestic law? What is the rule of law and to what extent should we value it? What is democracy and to what extent should we value it? What do we have in virtue of having a right? Are consequences the only thing that matters or does justice require the respect of other constraints? What rights do we have? Is soulcraft and the pursuit of ethical truths a legitimate purpose of government?
-
The Transformation of European Legal Thought
This course examines how globalization, European integration and the spread of democratic constitutionalism in Europe have undermined the salience of a whole range of basic ideas that have been central to modern European legal thought generally and the civil law tradition specifically and examines what has taken or should take their place. Readings will include classics of legal and political thought, some historical background literature, as well as contemporary theoretical work and decisions.
Publications
- Alexy’s Theory of Constitutional Rights and the Problem of Judicial Review, in Institutionalized Reason: The Jurisprudence of Robert Alexy 201 (Mathias Klatt, ed., Oxford University Press, 2012)
- The Moral Point of Constitutional Pluralism: Defining the Domain of Legitimate Institutional Civil Disobedience and Conscientious Objection, in Philosophical Foundations of European Union Law 216 (Julie Dickson and Pavlos Eleftheriadis, eds., Oxford University Press, 2012)
- How does European Union Law fit into the World of Public Law? Costa, Kadi and Three Models of Public Law, in Political Theory of the European Union 111 (Jurgen Neyer and Antje Wiener, eds., Oxford University Press, 2011)
- "The Idea of Socratic Contestation and the Right to Justification: The Point of Rights Based Proportionality Review," 4 Law & Ethics Hum. Rts. 140 (2010)
- The Cosmopolitan Turn in Constitutionalism: On the Relationship Between Constitutionalism in and beyond the State, in Ruling the World?: Constitutionalism, International Law, and Global Governance 258 (Jeffrey L. Dunoff and Joel P. Trachtman, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Education
- JSD, Harvard Law School, 2003
- 2nd State Examination in Law, Hamburg, 1997
- LLM (waived), Harvard Law School, 1996
- First State Examination in Law, University of Kiel, 1994
© 2024 New York University School of Law. 40 Washington Sq. South, New York, NY 10012. Tel. 212.998.6100