Kerstin Harden is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Customs and Trade Law. She joined the ICTL as a Junior Researcher in 2014.

Mrs. Harden studied communication science, english language and literature, american studies, law and politics at the University of Münster. During her studies, she had internships in a renowned London law firm and the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and passed the First State Examination in 2017.

After her graduation Mrs. Harden wrote her dissertation “Creation and Extinction of Customs Debts under the Union Customs Code and the Economic Customs Concept” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Hans Michael Wolffgang and received her PhD in 2020.

Subsequently she completed her legal clerkship from 2019 to 2021 in North-Rhine-Westphalia. During her time as a legal trainee Kerstin Harden had stations at the Federal Fiscal Court of Germany, the General Directorate of Customs of the Federal Finance Adminstration and the renowned Law Firm AWB Tax & Law GmbH.

Since 2021 she is an associated lawyer of AWB Tax & Law GmbH and advises clients in all areas of customs law. Kerstin Harden regularly publishes articles on customs law in legal academic journals such as the World Customs Journal, the “Außenwirtschaftliche Praxis” (AW-Prax), the “Zeitschrift für Zölle und Verbrauchssteuern” (ZfZ) and others.