Institute for Transnational Legal Research - METRO
Research institutes

Institute for Transnational Legal Research

METRO, the Institute for Transnational Legal Research (in Dutch: Maastrichts Europees instituut voor Transnationaal Rechtswetenschappelijk Onderzoek), contributes to environmental law, tort law, competition law, and the economic analysis of law by executing high-quality research. Metro distinguishes itself for dedicated researchers in various fields of law.

Research

METRO initiates and stimulates comparative and transboundary legal research and organizes conferences about various legal themes. Moreover, the institute publishes the Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, one of the top three journals in this field in Europe and the Ius Commune Europaeum Book Series. METRO is active in the field of contract research, for example for the EU, OECD, national governments and associations of insurers.

Core research topics of METRO include environmental law (including climate change, one of the topics listed under the pillar of Global Justice), tort law & insurance, and competition & regulation. METRO is specialised in the economic analysis of law. In that respect, METRO research has been geared towards a variety of Institutional transformations, for example by analyzing smart mixes of regulation, and to the pillar of Globalising Markets, for example by examining competition law in emerging markets.

 Visit METRO's research

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METRO’s research takes place
in the following pillars: 


1. Global Justice
2. Institutional Transformations
3. Globalising Markets 

 

News

  • In the first half of 2024, no less than five guest researchers are being hosted by METRO. Keep reading >>

  • Defense Haiyang Yu (2)

    PhD defence Haiyang Yu

    On 16 November 2023, METRO fellow Haiyang Yu successfully defended his PhD thesis with the title "Rethinking Environmental Salvage and Salvage Law: Towards an Efficient Mechanism for Environmental Emergency Response in Maritime Accidents?"

  • METRO introduced the extra-curricular course 'Introduction to Chinese Law' to the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University. The course is almost exclusively taught by Chinese (current and former) PhD researchers affiliated with the Faculty of Law and/or METRO. It will run from October until December...

More news items
  • AV&S2211

    AV&S symposium 2023

    Op 22 november a.s. vindt een AV&S symposium plaats over de invloed van verzekering op compensatie van schade. De verzekerbaarheid in Nederland is de afgelopen decennia toegenomen. Toch zijn er nog vragen over de grenzen van verzekerbaarheid en onder meer of de schade als gevolg van (natuur)rampen...

  • The EU-funded project FullCompensation aims to make the compensation of pain and suffering damages more equitable and efficient. To this end, the project led to the development of a model legislative proposal and guidelines, based on comparative and empirical evidence. These documents are intended...

  • In October of this year, METRO will co-organize with the faculty of law of the University of Lomé (Togo) a conference at the University of Lomé on the legal aspects of climate change. The conference will be held in French.

  • On 28 February, METRO researcher Qian Wu successfully defended her PhD thesis 'Tying in Digital Platforms under the Competition Legal Framework in China and the EU: A Comparative Law and Economics Perspective'. 

  • On 17 January 2023, METRO will organize the seminar 'The Evolving Nature of the Rule of Law in International Economic Law'. The seminar will be held at the StayOkay in Maastricht. Programme and free registration are available here.

  • On 23 November 2022, METRO researcher Minzhen Jiang successfully defended her PhD thesis with the title 'Compensation and Prevention for Damage Resulting from Offshore Drilling in China' at Maastricht University. 

  • On Friday 10 June 2022, Michael Faure and Niels Philipsen both presented (online) at the China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) in Beijing, at the occasion of the 70th anniversary of CUPL. The presentations were held in the context of the 8th international conference on Law and...

  • How can a more economic analysis strengthen our innovation policies to achieve a truly competitive digital single market?

  • On 29 June 2022, METRO will co-organize the event 'Debating the Future of the Energy Charter Treaty', held at UM Campus Brussels and via Zoom. Registration is possible via this link.

  • In this online seminar on recent developments in competition law and policy, speakers from China and the EU will present their ongoing or recently published research. It will take place on 7-8 April 2022.

  • Recently Niels Philipsen was interviewed by Dutch news radio station BNR on the question whether there are legal or economic arguments to split up Big Tech companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft. The podcast of that interview is available online. Philipsen also wrote a blog on...

  • METRO is happy to present two 'young doctors', who recently defended their PhD thesis successfully. One defence took place in late 2021 (Dr. Huizi Ai), the other in early 2022 (Dr. Marie Abalo).

  • On 1 December 2021 METRO will organize an online seminar entitled 'The Impact of the EU Green Deal on Chinese trade and investment in Europe: Opportunities and challenges'. This online event will address the potential consequences of the EU Green Deal for Chinese investments in Europe.

  • Should the rich pay higher fines? The fascinating topic of 'day fines' is covered in a book edited by our colleague Michael Faure and Elena Kantorowicz-Reznichenko (Erasmus University Rotterdam), published with Cambridge University Press.

    You can also read this short blog.

  • law_blog_niels_philipsen_china

    Recent blogs

    Today, a blog by Niels Philipsen was published as a Faculty of Law blog. Earlier this year, Mariolina Eliantonio, Sarah Schoenmaekers, Michael Faure (with Yu Yan) and Marjan Peeters also published in Law Blogs Maastricht.

  • On Tuesday 2 February at 13:00, Mr Aka Firmin Yapo will defend his PhD thesis called "La protection des transports de marchandises par mer en droit ivoirien: sécurité de la marchandise et sûreté de la navigation."

  • On 3 November, Gian Marco Solas (external research fellow at METRO) presented his book "Third Party Funding. Law, Economics and Policy" (Cambridge University Press) to a select audience of EU law and international litigation and arbitration specialists.

Social media

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Ius Commune Research School

METRO facilitates the Ius Commune Research School, a cooperation between the law faculties of the Universities of Maastricht (UM), Utrecht (UU), Amsterdam (UvA), and Leuven (K.U. Leuven), focused on the realization of a Ius Commune in Europe. Management and secretariat of the Research School are located at METRO, and METRO oversees the Ius Commune Casebooks and publishes the Ius Commune Europaeum Books.

Go to Ius Commune website

Ius Commune logo

MUCorpLab

The Maastricht University Corporate Laboratory (MUCorpLab), part of the METRO Institute, focuses on innovation in research and teaching in the area of corporate law, with a particular focus on corporate finance law.

Technology will change the future of corporate law – we are here to change.

Within the next ten to fifteen years, technology will change drastically the business environment in the corporate legal industry. These developments will alter the ways in which law firms and in-house counsel will function, it will affect how legal research is conducted, the way in which legal documents are drafted and the overall management of these processes. Such change will not only have an impact on the legal industry but also more broadly on the functioning and purpose of legal rules. 

Together with its partners, MUCorpLab’s mission statement is to become a front-runner in contributing to exploring and experimenting with legal solutions in this area. 

Coupling corporate expertise with a 25-year track record in law and economics as well as comparative legal research, MUCorpLab offers a strong methodologically framework that takes into account economic realities as well as important differences between jurisdictions based on language, culture and socio-economic background. 

The MUCorpLab consists, inter alia, of the Corporate Finance Law Honours Track and CorpDocEX.

Agenda

Blogs

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