Dr. Nina Kerstensteiner

Nina Kerstensteiner is a Senior Research Fellow at the Research Center for Animal and Animal Protection Law at the University of Bremen, where she is pursuing her Habilitation. Her research lies at the intersection of public law, animal protection law, environmental and nature conservation law, strategic litigation, and access to justice, with a particular focus on comparative and international perspectives.

She studied law at the University of Regensburg and passed the First State Examination in Law in 2017 and the Second State Examination in Law at the Higher Regional Court of Munich in 2020. She completed her doctorate at the University of Regensburg in 2024. From 2015 to 2025, she worked at the Chair of Public Law and Politics at the University of Regensburg. In 2024, she conducted research as a DAAD-funded visiting scholar at the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb; in 2025, she was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School.

Her doctoral thesis, later published as the monograph Animals in Court?, examined the gap between the formal recognition and practical enforcement of animal protection law. It analyzed the role of strategic litigation in advancing animal interests within existing legal structures and situated the German debate within broader international developments in animal law and the legal recognition of nonhuman interests. Her research has been recognized with several awards, including the Felix Wankel Young Researcher Award from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the First Prize of the Winter Foundation for the Rights of Nature, and the Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations from the Juratisbona Association at the University of Regensburg. In 2025, she was also selected as a finalist for the German Thesis Award of the Körber Foundation in the Humanities and Cultural Studies section.

Nina Kerstensteiner is a member of the German Legal Association for Animal Protection Law, Rights of Nature e.V., and the Strategic Litigation Unit Regensburg. She is a founding member of Legal Leverage Platform e.V. and spokesperson for the Advisory Board of the Refugee Law Clinic Regensburg, which she directed from 2020 to 2025.

In her Habilitation project, she examines “weak interests”, understood as interests that are formally recognized by law but whose effective enforcement is impeded by structural, procedural, or institutional barriers.

Selected Publications

• “Bridging the Gap: Reflections on Germany’s Legal Structure and Practice in Animal Law,” German Law Journal, pp. 1025–1053 (2025), DOI: doi.org/10.1017/glj.2025.10165
• “Das Tierschutzrecht im Schatten des Umweltrechts: Prozessrechtliche Defizite und Reformansätze” [Animal Protection Law in the Shadow of Environmental Law: Procedural Deficits and Reform Approaches], Zeitschrift für Umweltrecht (ZUR), pp. 332–339 (2025). 
• With Felix Aiwanger, “Personhood Across Borders: The Mar Menor Before Swiss Authorities,” Verfassungsblog (2025), DOI: doi.org/10.59704/65e9e201e33ef27d
• With Darija Željko Mrljak, “Access to Justice: The Role of Legal Clinics in Addressing Current Social Issues in Germany and Croatia,” SEE Law Journal, pp. 30–51 (2025). 
• With Stefan Knauss, “Rehe im Schatten der Bäume: Repräsentation ökologischer Interessen und die Stellung der Tiere” [Deer in the Shadow of Trees: The Representation of Ecological Interests and the Position of Animals], politische ökologie, pp. 42–48 (2025), DOI: doi.org/10.14512/POE032025042 
• “Tiere vor Gericht? Strukturelles Durchsetzungsdefizit im Tierschutzrecht und die Rolle der strategischen Prozessführung” [Animals in Courts? Structural Enforcement Deficits in Animal Protection Law and the Role of Strategic Litigation], Tübingen, 2024, DOI: doi.org/10.1628/978-3-16-163697-4 

 

• Animal Law and Animal Protection Law
• Environmental Law and Rights of Nature 
• Strategic Litigation 
• Access to Justice and Legal Clinics 
• Comparative Constitutional and Administrative Law