Trading Softly? The EU’s Quiet Shift Toward Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships

  • Law

For decades, multilateralism has been the guiding principle for regulating international trade relations between states. The European Union (EU) has long championed this approach, firmly believing that global cooperation - ideally through consensus among all countries - is the most effective way to govern state trade relations. As a fallback, the EU has also supported plurilateralism, where a critical mass of countries agrees on rules even if not everyone is on board.

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PhD Defence Ammar Ammar

  • PhD Defence

"Enhancing The Interoperability And Reusability Of Nanosafety Data: A Foundation Towards Deeper Insights and Intelligent Applications"

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Beginners level, where you focus on all skills: speaking, listening, writing and reading! Planning to continue learning Dutch? Take this course and easily advance to the next level.

  • Part time

PhD Defence Stefanie Norbert Lisette De Smet

  • PhD Defence

"Brain state dependence of prefrontal non-invasive brain stimulation: Insights and clinical implications"

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Online PhD Defence Trang Thi Pham

  • PhD Defence

"Mobile internet diffusion and development impacts: evidence and heterogeneity effects"

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The Department of Public Law focuses on the normative, conceptual, and empirical studies of (inter)national and European public law. The Department is well-known in The Netherlands and beyond, due to the top quality of its education and research outputs. Its research and education are focused on the areas of administrative law, social law, constitutional law, labor law, and environmental law. The Department hosts about 45 staff members.

The Department offers a wide and comprehensive variety of courses, both at undergraduate and graduate level, including moot court supervisions and professional/post-academic courses. Characteristic for the Maastricht approach – which is also visible within the Department of Public Law – is that courses are not only offered on Dutch law, but also on European and comparative public law. Please refer to the ‘Education page’ to discover more.

In light of the Faculty’s commitment to research that what is both societally relevant and interdisciplinary, the department explores the evolution and resilience of public legal institutions through the lens of real-world challenges and broader social transformations. Researchers of the Department participate actively in faculty and interfaculty Research Centres and Institutes. The research is embedded in MCEL, CERiM, Gobalisation and Law Network, MOSaR and the Ius Commune Research School. The Department has developed extensive connections with partner institutions around the world. These relationships provide for the exchange of students and staff between Maastricht and other leading institutions, and offer opportunities to share knowledge, develop understanding and enrich the research and academic life of the faculty as a whole. Please refer to the ‘Reseach page’ to discover more


For further information please go to Education, Research, People of the Law Support Office.

Globalisation & Law Network seminar with Rodrigo Vallejo Garretón

On 4 July 2025, the Globalisation & Law Network had the pleasure of welcoming Dr Rodrigo Vallejo Garretón, Assistant Professor in Pri

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Webinar: the Experimental Pedagogics Framework

  • staff training

In this webinar, you will learn the basic principles of XP and get access to free resources to experiment with it in your classroom.

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Language policy in European higher education

  • UM news

The increased Englishization of higher education is under discussion in several European countries.

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