Felicitas is a post-doctoral researcher at UCC where she works on the Law and Inner Self research project, which is funded by an Irish Research Council (Consolidator) Laureate Grant (IRCLA/2022/2628) and led by Dr. Patrick O'Callaghan. For more information about the LAWINSEL research project, click on this link: https://www.lawinnerself.org/. Felicitas first studied law in Germany and completed the German First State Exam and a degree in German law with specialisation in public international and EU law at Freie Universität Berlin. She furthermore holds a LLM in international law from University College London and completed her PhD (Thesis: Self-Determination of Peoples in the Context of Supranational Governance) at Middlesex University London.

Within the Law and the Inner Self project, Felicitas is responsible for research concerning international, human rights and comparative constitutional law, notably concerning the UK and Germany. Her recent work has delved extensively into the rights to freedom of thought and private life (including categories developed within this right by the European Court of Human Rights) as well as other personality rights and their re-assessment in light of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, both within the European context and in comparison with international human rights law. Her focus on European human rights law includes studies of CJEU jurisprudence on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, as well as the interaction of the legal regimes of the EU and international law. Besides human rights law in international and regional frameworks, Felicitas’ core areas of expertise are EU, AU and public international law, self-determination of peoples (generally, she is interested in rights protecting either the collective or individual notion of the ‘self’); the effects of different forms of governance on human rights and their development through practice, scholarship and jurisprudence and vice versa; the laws and policies of international organisations; supranational and regional integration and legal processes; and comparative law. While mainly adopting the methodology of legal research, Felicitas likes to incorporate interdisciplinary approaches in her research from neighbouring disciplines, such as philosophy, sociology and other disciplines in the humanities. One of her personal concerns is to emphasise approaches from legal frameworks that are underrepresented in European mainstream research literature.

My teaching interests coincide with my research interests, but I am also passionate about combining my experiences in legal practice with my teaching by including interactive and legal clinical exercises in my sessions. I have experience teaching under- and postgraduate student cohorts, as well as interdisciplinary modules that form part of programmes not only for law students, but for example students of the political sciences or business and law students. Modules/subjects I have taught include: international trade law (laws and policies of the World Trade Organisation); UK and European human rights law; human rights and sustainable development; legal writing and research; alternative dispute resolution.