Associate Professor of Law
410.837.4177
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 508
Administrative Assistant: Deborah Pinkham
410.837.4634
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 502
Education
DPhil in Law, Oxford University
J.D., Georgetown University
M.T., University of Virginia
B.A., University of Virginia
Curriculum Vitae
Areas of Expertise
Cultural Heritage Law
Public International Law
Law of Armed Conflict
Copyright Law
Property Law
Supreme Court Special Masters
Carstens joined the University of Baltimore School of Law as Associate Professor of Law in 2023 to teach Property, Introduction to Lawyering Skills, Civil Procedure, and international and cultural heritage law courses. She previously taught Property, Civil Procedure, Copyright, Lawyering, and other IP and cultural heritage courses at Georgetown Law and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, as well as in London-based international law programs for Georgetown Law-University College London and for the University of Tulsa Law School.
Her research and scholarship focus primarily on legal issues at the intersections of cultural heritage, international law, and property law. She was appointed as an expert advisor on cultural property issues at the U.S. Department of State, chaired the Cultural Heritage and the Arts Interest Group of the American Society of International Law, and co-chaired the former Art & Cultural Heritage certificate program offered by Georgetown Law Executive Education. She has presented widely on issues concerning the legal protection of cultural sites and artifacts, including at U.S. federal government institutions, the Acropolis Museum, Chatham House (Royal Institute of Foreign Affairs, London), and leading universities worldwide. Her books include Intersections in International Cultural Heritage Law (as co-editor and contributor) and Safeguarding Cultural Property During Armed Conflict (forthcoming). In addition, she has authored book chapters, law review articles, and other works on a range of topics covering international criminal law and the law of armed conflict, copyright law, treaty interpretation, special masters in the Supreme Court, and cultural heritage law, including in the Minnesota Law Review, the Washington Law Review, the Stanford Journal of International Law, the American Journal of International Law, the British Year Book of International Law, and the American Journal of Legal History. She also serves as a deputy editor and reviewer for peer-reviewed publications.
After law school, Carstens clerked for Judge Diana Gribbon Motz on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and practiced litigation in Washington and in London at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown Law, where she served as Executive Articles Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. While completing her DPhil in Law (research doctorate in Public International Law), she was competitively selected by the Oxford Law Faculty for a research residency at Yale Law School and awarded a grant for summer study at the Hague Academy of International Law.
Selected Publications
Book chapter: Dissecting Cultural Heritage Crimes in International Criminal Law, in RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON ART, CULTURE AND HERITAGE LAW (Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2024)
Book: SAFEGUARDING CULTURAL PROPERTY DURING ARMED CONFLICT (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2024)
Book chapter (with J. Peter Byrne): Heritage Suspension: Protection of Heritage in Public Emergencies, in ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK ON HERITAGE LAW (forthcoming 2023)
Article: Copyright’s Deprivations, 96 WASH. L. REV. 1275 (2021)
Book (as co-editor and contributor): Carstens and Varner (eds.), INTERSECTIONS IN INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL HERITAGE LAW (Oxford University Press, 2020)
Book chapter: The Swinging Pendulum of Cultural Heritage Crimes in International Criminal Law, in INTERSECTIONS IN INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL HERITAGE LAW (Oxford University Press 2020)
Article: The Hostilities-Occupation Dichotomy and Cultural Property in Non-International Armed Conflicts, 52 STANFORD J. INT’L L. (March 2016)
Book chapter: Interpreting Transplanted Treaty Rules, in INTERPRETATION IN INTERNATIONAL LAW (Oxford University Press 2015)
Case comment: International Decisions: Copyright (Technische Universität at Darmstadt v. Eugen Ulmer KG), 109 AM. J. INT’L L. 161 (2015)
Book review: Review of Eyal Benvenisti’s INTERNATIONAL LAW OF OCCUPATION, 83 BRITISH YEAR BOOK OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 2012 172 (2013)
Article: The International Legal Protection of World Heritage Sites during Armed Conflict, TRANSNATIONAL DISPUTE MANAGEMENT (2013)
Book review: Examining the Claims of “Universal Museums” and the Pleas of “Nations Stolen Blind” (reviewing John Henry Merryman’s IMPERIALISM, ART AND RESTITUTION (2006)), 7 ART ANTIQUITY AND LAW 179 (2007)
Book review: Review of Joseph F. Zimmerman, INTERSTATE DISPUTES: THE SUPREME COURT’S ORIGINAL JURISDICTION, 48 AM. J. LEGAL HIST. 460 (2006)
Article: Lurking in the Shadows of Judicial Process: Special Masters in the Supreme Court’s Original Jurisdiction Cases, 86 MINN. L. REV. 625 (2002)
Selected Presentations
Invited Commentator, Keynote Address: “Legal Protection of Cultural Heritage in Ukraine-Russian War” (commentator for keynote address by Anton Korynevych, Ambassador-At-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine), at The Nuremberg Principles: Contemporary Challenges Conference, co-sponsored by Catholic University of America Institute for Policy Research, Federal Ministry of Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany (D.C.), and other institutions (March 27, 2023)
Presenter, “Protection of Cultural Property in Times of War & Ukraine” at the Institute of Art and Law (London) (February 25, 2023)
Presenter, “McIntire’s Charlottesville,” paper presented at panel on When Naming Rights Become a Liability, Annual Conference for Association of American Law Schools (AALS) (San Diego) (January 6, 2023)
Presenter, “The Protection of Cultural Heritage in Armed Conflict,” British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) (London) (November 16, 2022)
Presenter, “Cultural Heritage Destruction in Ukraine,” paper presented for panel organized by American Society of International Law (ASIL), the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), and the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield (May 13, 2022)
Moderator, Discussion with Professor Carlos Vázquez, international law expert in the case of Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, a then-upcoming World War II-era looted art case in the U.S. Supreme Court, Georgetown University (Washington)(December 8, 2021)
Presenter, “Registering Cultural Heritage: The Function of Inventories for Listing and Saving the World’s Cultural Sites and Intangible Cultural Heritage,” Art & Cultural Heritage program, co-sponsored by the Artistic Freedom Initiative and Georgetown Law Executive Education and hosted by Georgetown Law (December 6, 2021)
Presenter, “The Pandora Papers & Illicit Looting in Antiquities,” at Culture, Art, Cultural Identity and Small States, organized by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL), Institute of Small and Micro States (ISMS), and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr (November 20, 2021)
Presenter, “The Protection of Cultural Heritage in Armed Conflict” at the International Cultural Heritage Law short course hosted by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) (London) (November 9, 2021)
Presenter, “Cultural Heritage in Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law,” Art & Cultural Heritage program, co-sponsored by the Artistic Freedom Initiative, Center for Art Law, and Georgetown Law Executive Education and hosted by Georgetown Law (Washington) (December 10, 2020)
Presenter, “The International and Domestic Legal Regimes for Protecting Cultural Heritage,” Art & Cultural Heritage program, co-sponsored by the Artistic Freedom Initiative, Center for Art Law, and Georgetown Law Executive Education and hosted by Georgetown Law (Washington) (December 7, 2020)
Presenter, “Legal Protection for Cultural Property in International and Non-International Armed Conflicts,” at Under Fire: Cultural Heritage and Armed Groups, hosted by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) (London) (January 28, 2019)
Presenter, “The Relative Gravity of Cultural Heritage Destruction as a War Crime,” presented at Experts Roundtable on Safeguarding our Cultural Heritage, sponsored by the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) (April 2017) (other expert participants included then-UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and then-UN Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights Karima Bennoune)
Presenter, “Cultural Heritage Destruction and International Criminal Law,” Panel on Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Conflict: Promoting Accountability and the Rule of Law, sponsored by Senate Human Rights Caucus Co-Chairs Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del)