Latest blog articles

Many things happened at the Faculty in the past fortnight. Friday 26 January, we celebrated the 42^nd Dies Natalis of the UM. The one thing I always like about this celebration is that it is enormously varied compared to other universities’ anniversaries.

Legal craftsmanship is no longer the same as being a master of law. One of the challenges we face as a faculty, is how to design our teaching in such a way that our graduates have the skills to work until 2068.

Some colleagues asked me what it is that a dean does all day and why he cannot simply do his fair share of teaching. This question is fully justified and this blog will try to give some insight into work and life of a dean (that, by the way, I am also curious about myself).

One of the major achievements from European integration is the principle of mutual recognition. ^{(Dutch only)}

On 9 April 2011 a gunman killed 6 people in a shopping mall in the Dutch town of Alphen aan den Rijn. A group of victims now claims damages from the gunman’s parents, claiming that they should have prevented their son from this horrendous act. The claim will fail: on the facts of the case, there is...

How diverse is Dutch science? According to a majority in the Second Chamber, perhaps not quite diverse. Last week, the Chamber adopted a motion that calls upon the government to clarify whether Dutch university staff is made up too much homogeneous. ^{(Dutch only)}

Albert Camus famously wrote that ‘life is the sum of all your choices.’ Private lawyers could not agree more. At the core of private law lies the idea that individuals are allowed to know better than the State.

Almost fifty percent of all marriages in the western world end in divorce. That is one of the most important reasons why relationship therapist Susan Pease Gadoua and reporter Vicki Larson, the authors of the recently published book ‘The New “I Do”’  , argue that a marriage for life is  an...

Do you know Saúl Luciano Lliyua? Saúl is a Peruvian farmer. He lives in the Andes, near a glacier that has been melting rapidly over the last ten years... This blog is only available in Dutch.

Last Friday, in Obergefell et al v. Hodges the United States Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote held that same-sex couples may exercise the right to marry in all US States. President Obama, a fervent supporter and promotor of the gay-marriage and gay rights, decided to light up the White House as a rainbow...