Research grant for Monica Claes and Maarten Stremler

The aim of this fund is to promote research that relates to the work and ideas of Johan Rudolf Thorbecke (1798-1872), statesman and founder of Dutch parliamentary democracy.

Public power is nowadays exercised not only by the state, but increasingly also by international and supranational actors such as the European Union and private actors like BigTech. This development means that constitutional law, traditionally understood as staatsrecht (state law), is undergoing fundamental changes, but to the mainstream study of Dutch state law these changes remain largely invisible.

The study of state law should therefore be transformed into a broader field of constitutional scholarship. This research project makes a start and applies this new approach by investigating what the rise of new forms of public power should mean for Dutch constitutional law and scholarship.