- (European) Human Rights
- (Comparative) Constitutional Law
- The interaction between European / international and national law
- Constitutional Interpretation - Judicial Review
- Legal Education

Aalt Willem Heringa (1955) graduated from the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden in 1978, where he worked until 1987 as an assistant professor. He was a visiting researcher at the Centre of European Governmental Studies of the University of Edinburgh (1986) and at the European Research Center of the Harvard Law School (1996). In 1989 he completed his Ph.D. thesis 'Sociale Grondrechten' (Social Rights). He has been working at Maastricht University, the Faculty of Law, since 1987; he was appointed full professor of (comparative) constitutional and administrative law in 1995. Since then he successfully supervised twelve PhD’s.

Author and editor of numerous books and articles on Dutch Constitutional law, the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Social Charter, comparative constitutional law, US constitutional law, Human Rights and legal education. He has served for many years as a Member of the Netherlands Commission on Equal Treatment. He is one of the founding editors of the NJCM Bulletin (the Dutch Human Rights Journal); of EHRC (European Human Rights Cases) and of EVRM Rechtspraak & Commentaar (a loose leaf commentary on the European Convention of Human Rights). He served on the supervisory board of Hiil (the Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of the Law) and on the Supervisory Board of LVO (a major Limburg based school board for secondary education; from 1999 until 2010)). He is since 2010 a member of the supervisory board of Orbis Medical Center, major care and cure organisation in the south of Limburg province. Since 2012 he also serves on the Conseil d’Administration of Paris University Dauphine.
Between 2000 and 2005 Aalt Willem Heringa was president of the field-hockey club ‘Hockeer’, building two new artificial grass fields and a new accommodation/canteen. From 2003 until 2011 he served two terms of four years as Dean of the Law Faculty, member of the Mangement Team of Maastricht University as well as academic director of Maastricht University’s Campus Brussels. From 2006 until 2011 he was president of the Council of Law School Deans and of the Association of Law Faculties. Furthermore he is a member and vice-president of the Board of the International Association of Law Schools (IALS; www.ialsnet.org), a member of the Conseil d'administration of the Université Dauphine in Paris and a substitute judge in the District Court of Roermond. He also sat on the Board of the China-EU School of Law (CESL) in Beijing, China (www.cesl.edu.cn ). Since 2012 he is director of the Montesquieu Institute Maastricht (http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/web/Institutes/MontesquieuInstituteMaastricht1.htm). In 2013 he works as European Co-Dean of the China EU School of Law in Beijing.

In the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University he was one of the founders of the LLM program, Magister Iuris Communis (master in comparative, European and international law, which was the predecessor of the master European Law School) and of the original and innovative European Law School LLB and LLM: the only programs to train European lawyers in an English taught program in European law, international law and comparative law. During his deanship the Faculty of Law developed itself as a truly international and European Law Faculty, with a great diversity in bachelor and master programs; an international staff and diversified student body. The Faculty underwent a renovation of its building, adapting it to modern day needs, and was successfully assessed in the 2010 Research and Education exercises. He is involved in innovation of legal education and coordinates a project in the Law Faculty to introduce video clips and electronic self tests as means of assisting students’ preparation and feedback.

Recently he was a member of groups of experts accrediting law schools in Estonia (2006 and 2008) and assessing the organisation of teaching in Helsinki University (2008).

His most recent authored book are Constitutions Compared (Intersentia 2012, third edition), An Introduction to Comparative Constitutional Law, with co-author Philipp Kiiver; and a textbook on Dutch Constitutional Law, Staatsrecht (with co-authors L. Verhey, J. van der Velde and W. van der Woude; 11th edition, 2012). In 2011 an edited collection appeared about legal education in Europe: Educating European Lawyers, Intersentia 2011 (with co-editor Bram Akkermans). In 2011 he wrote a forward looking article under the title: European Legal Education or Legal Education in Europe, Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, 18(3), 221-224 (also available on www.ssrn.com). See for further publications the Metis link on this page. Regular blogs and opinions are being published (in Dutch) on the website of the Montesquieu Institute (http://www.montesquieu-instituut.nl/ ) and the electronic journal published by the Montesquieu Institute (www.dehofvijver.com ).

Publications in Metis >>

Co-ordinator of the compulsory bachelor course on Comparative Government

- Vice-President International Association of Law Schools

- Director Montesquieu Institute Maastricht

- Member of the Board of Montesquieu Institute

- Member of the Board of Supervisors Orbis Medical and Care

- Member of the Conseil d'Aministration Université Paris Dauphine

- Substitute Judge District Court Limburg

- Member Editorial Board European Human Rights Cases