Studied in Kiel, traineeship: Kiel, Berlin and New York/U.S.A. Legal clerkships at the Office of the Federal President and the German Consulate General New York, lawyer since 2024
Specialisation: Public law
Dr Nicolas Harding advises clients on public law with a focus on both administrative and constitutional law. On the one hand, he specialises in legal matters relating to the state's handling of information, in particular the right to make statements under public law. In addition, Dr Harding works in the field of public construction law and renewable energy law and advises members of the liberal professions on professional and EU law issues. Due to his many years of experience as a lecturer in civil law, Dr Harding also advises clients on public and state liability law in judicial and extrajudicial proceedings. Dr Nicolas Harding teaches as a lecturer at the Alpmann Schmidt legal revision centre in Kiel and Hamburg. He is the author of numerous legal publications and co-author of the standard work on the law on public statements.
Dr Nicolas Harding is a board member of the Federal Association for Public Law (BÖR). He is also a member of the German Bar Association, Schleswig-Holstein regional group, a member of the Schleswig-Holstein Law Society and a member of the Lorenz-von-Stein-Gesellschaft zu Kiel e.V.
PUBLICATIONS
I. Monographs
- State public relations in social networks, Tübingen 2023
- Honoured with the Schleswiger Forum Prize 2023 for outstanding dissertations in the field of public law
- Honoured with the Kiel Doctores Iuris Prize 2023
- Reviews:
- In: FAZ - 26 September 2023, p. 7(Stephan Klenner)
- In: LKV 2023, issue 33, p. 259(Tobias Schröter)
- In: Die Öffentliche Verwaltung 2023, issue 76, p. 958-959(Birgit Eberbach-Born)
- In: NordÖR 2023, p. 374
- Corona pandemic and debt brake in Schleswig-Holstein, Berlin 2021 (together with Florian Becker and Lennart Laude)
II Book contributions
- Risk prevention in food law, Frankfurt a.M. 2024
- The Berlin Food Monitoring Transparency Act (pp. 82 to 101 together with Florian Becker)
- Handbook on public law right of expression, Munich 2022
- § Section 2 III - Special features in social networks
- § Section 3 II 3 - Differentiation between the duty of political neutrality and the requirement of objectivity
- § 4 II - State advertising measures
- § Section 5 I 3 - IFG and other claims under simple law
- § Section 5 II 1 - IFG of the federal states/Transparency Act and other claims under simple law
- § 5 III - Exclusions
- Public & private enforcement in food law, Frankfurt a. M. 2022
- Is the fundamental right to informational self-determination still an effective barrier to official public information? (pp. 19 to 33 together with Marie Holst and Florian Becker)
III Essays
- The amendment of the municipal opening clause - An initial legal assessment, Die Gemeinde 2025, Issue 9, pp. 214 to 218
- The right of non-profit organisations to make statements, DStR 2025, Issue 26, pp. 1440 to 1446 (together with Simon Meyer)
- Powers of expression of municipal public authorities - A stocktaking, NVwZ 2025, Issue 5, pp. 292 to 296 (together with Sophie Vanselow)
- Trusted flaggers under the Digital Services Act - An initial legal classification, MMR 2025, Issue 2, pp. 94 to 98
- Notes on the acceptance of benefits for municipal officials, Die Gemeinde 2024, Issue 10, pp. 242 to 245
- On the legal inadmissibility of the ban on anticoagulants as rodenticides, LMuR 2024, Issue 2, pp. 68 to 73 (together with Florian Becker)
- Communicative defence of the constitution and the AfD, NJW 2023, issue 40, pp. 2911 to 2915
- Access to the files of the Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein, NordÖR 2023, Issue 1, pp. 1 to 7 (together with Florian Becker)
- On the primary law and constitutional illegality of the Berlin LMÜTranspG, LMuR 2023, Issue 1, pp. 3 to 9 (together with Florian Becker)
- On the secondary illegality of the Berlin LMÜTranspG, LMuR 2022, Issue 6, pp. 507 to 513 (together with Florian Becker)
- The depoliticisation of official governmental public relations work as reflected in the current case law of the BVerfG, NVwZ 2022, Issue 23, pp. 1777 to 1781
- "Dirtykitchen", JURA 2021, issue 2, pp. 193 to 200 (together with Marie Holst)
- The conformity with Union law of the protection of designations under savings bank law in the event of a merger of a public and a private savings bank, NJOZ 2021, pp. 481 to 486
- The A-Party and its problems with the rule of law, ZJS 2021, Issue 1, pp. 65 to 71
- Election campaign in Schleswig-Holstein, JA 2020, Issue 4, pp. 284 to 292 (together with Lennart Laude)
- The characterisation of state accounts in social networks, NJW 2019, Issue 27, pp. 1910 to 1915
- Procedural and substantive hurdles in the district levy, NVwZ 2017, Issue 20, pp. 1506 to 1509 (together with Fiete Kalscheuer)
- On the permissibility of a municipal packaging tax, NordÖR 2017, Issue 3, pp. 113 to 116 (together with Fiete Kalscheuer)
IV. Notes on judgements
- VG Freiburg: Inadmissible contribution by an AfD city council faction in the municipal gazette, comment on the judgement of the VG Freiburg of 20 March 2025 - 4 K 5552/24, KommJur 2025, page 309
- BGH: Energy systems as customer systems, comment on the decision of the BGH of 13 May 2025 - EnVR 83/20, EnWZ 2025, page 326 to 327
- Constitutional Court of Koblenz: Justified breach of duty of neutrality by Minister President (communicative constitutional defence): Comment on the judgement of the Constitutional Court RhPf of 02.04.2025 - VGH O 11/24, NVwZ 2025, page 928 to 930
- OVG Koblenz: Analogue capability and encroachment on fundamental rights in the VIG, comment on the judgement of the OVG Koblenz of 28.06.2024 - 10 A 10901/23.OVG, LMuR 2025, page 183 to 184
- BVerfG: Constitutional conformity of the Tübingen packaging tax, comment on the decision of the BVerfG of 27 November 2024 - 1 BvR 1726/23, KommJur 2025, page 104.
- VG Berlin: Publication of results and evaluations of food law controls on the Internet, comment on the decision of the VG Berlin of 16 December 2024 - VG 14 L 228/24, LMuR 2025, pages 131 to 133
- OVG Lüneburg: Election objection - violation of the duty of neutrality by the mayor, comment on the decision of the OVG Lüneburg of 16 September 2024 - 10 LA 84/24, NVwZ 2024, pages 1682 to 1684
- BVerwG: Inadmissibility of anonymous IFG applications, comment on the judgement of the BVerwG of 20 March 2024 - 6 C 8/22, NJW 2024, pages 2488 to 2489
- VG Berlin: Violation of neutrality by a police officer ("Officer Denny"), comment on the judgement of the VG Berlin of 18 March 2024 - 36 K 389/22, MMR 2024, pages 709 to 710
- BVerwG: Obligation of laboratory managers to notify the authorities if salmonella is detected in food, comment on the judgement of the Federal Administrative Court of 14 December 2023 - 3 C 7.22, LMuR 2024, page 179 to 180
- Bückeburg Constitutional Court: Power of the Minister President to make statements in the event of attacks by an anti-constitutional political party on the freedom of the press, comment on the judgement of the NdsStGH of 24.11.2020 - StGH 6/19 , NVwZ 2021, pp. 147 to 148
- NVwZ Editorial: The "Federal Chancellor's" power of expression and the BVerfG, NVwZ 2022, Issue 15
V. Blog posts
- Anonymous right to information: Information yes, but for whom, please? - Comment on the judgement of the ECJ of 15 January 2026 - C-129/24, beck-aktuell from 15.01.2026
- The Bundestag should regulate the public relations work of ministers, F.A.Z. objection from 16/09/2024
- The end for influencers in uniform?: On the judgement of the VG Berlin against "Officer Denny", VerfBlog, 2024/6/28
- How members of the government can comment on the AfD, F.A.Z. objection from 05/03/2024
- The state brake: Why the democratic parties should now find a common line in dealing with the debt brake, VerfBlog, 2023/11/27
- Emergency loans always and everywhere? How the Basic Law puts the brakes on state borrowing, VerfBlog , 2023/4/25
- From state to private: On the classification of Nancy Faeser's Twitter account, VerfBlog, 2023/2/08
- The Digital Services Act and fundamental rights - time for a "Lüth" ruling by the ECJ?, LTO from 16/07/2022
- Bazooka becomes booster: On the constitutionality of the postponement of corona loans in the supplementary budget, VerfBlog, 2021/12/19
- Giving a Toss about the Social Media Cut and Thrust: Election campaigns of political parties in social networks, VerfBlog, 2019/12/12
VI Miscellaneous
- Statement on behalf of the Freie Apothekerschaft e.V. on the draft bill for a Pharmacy Supply Further Development Act and on the draft bill for a Second Ordinance amending the Pharmacy Operating Regulations and the Pharmaceutical Price Ordinance of 10 November 2025 (together with Dr Fiete Kalscheuer)
- Guest article "What IFG applications can do for pharmacies", in: Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung DAZ, 2025, issue no. 34 pages 88 to 90.
- Opinion on behalf of the Freie Apothekerschaft e.V. on the admissibility under European and constitutional law of an Rx mail-order ban of 25 February 2025 (together with Fiete Kalscheuer)
- Statement on behalf of the Freie Apothekerschaft e.V. on the compatibility of the draft bill on the Pharmacy Reform Act with pharmacy and constitutional law of 26 June 2024 (together with Fiete Kalscheuer)
- Thesis paper for the International Congress on Young Science and Business of the Hanns Martin Schleyer Foundation 2022 "Social networks between fundamental freedom and fundamental commitment: Time for a new European regulatory policy?"
