Studied in Kiel, legal clerkship: 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 government information law, in particular the right to make public statements under public law, and constitutional law. He also specialises in public construction law and renewable energy law. Dr Harding also advises on municipal and pharmacy law.
Dr 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 public law.
Dr Nicolas Harding is a member of the German Bar Association, Schleswig-Holstein regional group, the Schleswig-Holstein Law Society e.V., the Lorenz-von-Stein-Gesellschaft zu Kiel e.V. and he is a member of the Federal Association of Public Law (BÖR).
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 - Distinction 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
- 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
- Comment on the decision of the VG Berlin of 16 December 2024 - VG 14 L 228/24, LMuR 2025, pages 131 to 133
- Comment on the decision of the OVG Lüneburg of 16 September 2024 - 10 LA 84/24, NVwZ 2024, pages 1682 to 1684
- Comment on the judgement of the BVerwG of 20 March 2024 - 6 C 8/22, NJW 2024, page 2488 to 2489
- Comment on the judgement of the VG Berlin of 18 March 2024 - 36 K 389/22, MMR 2024, page 709 to 710
- Comment on the judgement of the BVerwG of 14.12.2023 - 3 C 7.22, LMuR 2024, page 179 to 180
- Comment on the judgement of the NdsStGH of 24 November 2020, NVwZ 2021, pp. 147 to 148
- NVwZ-Editorial: The "Federal Chancellor's" power to make statements and the BVerfG, NVwZ 2022, Issue 15.
V. Blog posts
- The Bundestag should regulate the public relations work of ministers, F.A.Z. objection of 16/09/2024
- 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 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?"
