Faculty/Staff ProfileTitle

AREAS OF EXPERTISE 

Cultural Heritage Law
Property Law and Land Use
International Humanitarian Law
Copyright Law
Supreme Court Special Masters

COURSES TAUGHT (CURRENT AND PREVIOUS) 

Property
Civil Procedure
Lawyering Skills
Cultural Heritage Law
Copyright
International Intellectual Property

BIOGRAPHY 

Professor Carstens writes and speaks widely on legal issues at the intersections of cultural heritage law, public international law, and property law, and she recently received the university’s Student Choice Excellence in Teaching award from the Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching & Technology. Prior to joining the University of Baltimore School of Law, she taught at the Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, as well as in London-based study abroad programs for Georgetown Law-University College London and for the University of Tulsa Law School. Her courses have included Property, Civil Procedure, International IP, Copyright, a cultural heritage law seminar, and lawyering skills, and she also co-chaired the Art & Cultural Heritage certificate program offered through Georgetown Law Executive Education. 

In 2024, she was selected by the American Society of International Law (ASIL) for the Vagts Roundtable, which annually recognizes an emerging scholar in international or transnational law. She also was appointed to an international expert committee of the International Law Association (ILA) on protecting cultural heritage during armed conflict and previously served as an expert advisor on cultural property issues at the U.S. Department of State. She has presented widely on issues concerning the legal protection of property, cultural sites, and artifacts, including at U.S. government institutions, the Acropolis Museum, National Palace Museum of Korea, Matenadaran (Mesrop Mashtots Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 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), and she has published in various journals, including the Minnesota Law Review, University of Colorado Law Review, Washington Law Review, Maryland Law Review, Harvard International Law Journal, Stanford Journal of International Law, American Journal of International Law, British Year Book of International Law, and 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 complex litigation in Washington and in London at WilmerHale, primarily in the areas of copyright and employment law. 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), 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.