'Federal Impartiality: Navigating Divisive Rights in the EU and the US' CELS and CPL Book launch

Cambridge Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS) Podcast

Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

Education, Business, Society & Culture

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🗓️ 14 May 2026

⏱️ 63 minutes

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Summary

The Centre for European Legal Studies and the Centre for Public Law held a book launch and panel discussion on Dr Mohamed Moussa's recent monograph: Federal Impartiality: Navigating Divisive Rights in the EU and the US (Hart, 2026)

Panel Members

Chair

Professor Catherine Barnard (Cambridge), Chair of European Law

Discussant

Professor Mark Tushnet (Harvard), William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Emeritus

Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, good afternoon everyone. It's so wonderful to see all of you here on such a beautiful afternoon.
0:07.0	And the rest of you are sitting there with either soft jackets or something fit or poet.
0:13.0	Your physical discomfort will be alleviating by intellectual good food. I'm really pleased, delighted to welcome Mohammed here to talk about his
0:31.2	fabulous new book, which I've had the opportunity to have a good look at. Now, Muhammad is a star, as you'll know, I could go through his CB, but he needs to take it from me.
0:43.3	He's just magnificent.
0:45.3	What I'd like to say is that I also think this book is absolutely fascinating.
0:51.3	And it tackles both a very old and a very recent question. The old question is
0:58.5	the division of powers between the centre and the periphery between federal government and the
1:07.2	constituents that an issue not quite as old of the hills, but certainly pretty much as old as the United States is, and also, of course, an issue of huge significance of the European Union.
1:19.4	And I think what makes this book so rich is that it doesn't just adopt the usual observations that all power should be either
1:32.3	concentrated at the centre or at the periphery, but ask a much more fundamental question about
1:38.3	why it is good to have this separation division of powers on the vertical domain.
1:45.0	And what are the circumstances when the centre, the federal government,
1:52.0	has act better, and by better, what I think is really marvellous about
1:58.0	and on this book, is a better is a sophisticated concept, not just a sort of
2:04.6	ight-sized piece, that this is clearly things that can be done better at the centre or at the
2:10.6	periphery. Now, I think Mohammed's book gives a wonderful case study of why it's really important to carry
2:20.5	on to be studying European law, particularly for those of us who were raised in a system
2:27.0	like the UK, which thinks about absolute sovereignty and the fact that the state will do
2:32.9	whatever is necessary, although even that is questioned now with devolution and any SPS agreement that's entered into in the next few weeks will absolutely bring these issues to the faith.
2:47.0	So, Mohammed would explain all of this formal coherently that I can manage.
2:53.6	I commend the book to very briefly lead.
	...

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