Plan your stay in Maastricht and have a look at where the Faculty of Law is located as well as many of our partner hotels!
You can find other hotels in Maastricht on this website.

By car

When travelling to Maastricht by car, you should travel into the city centre, direction "Vrijthof". The Faculty of Law is located at the Bouillonstraat, which is a side street of the famous (city centre) square "Vrijthof". 

The parking lot closest to the Faculty of Law is Q-Park Vrijthof. Click here for an overview of parking possibilities (website in Dutch only).

By train

If you are visiting Maastricht by train, you can check the travel possibilities through the various public transport websites:
within the Netherlands
coming from Belgium
coming from Germany

By plane

There is one airport in the neighbourhood of Maastricht, but very few airlines fly this route. Visit their website to learn about the possibilities.

Coming from Brussels Airport (Zaventem, Belgium)
In order to travel from Brussels Airport (Zaventem) to Maastricht Railway Station you can use the train (+/- 1.5 hours). The airport railway station is located below the terminal (basement level 1). Up to 4 trains an hour leave the airport to the railway stations: Bruxelles Nord, Bruxelles Central and Bruxelles Midi. The fare is estimated around €15,- Reservation of any sort is not necessary. It is possible to plan your travel in advance. Check always the updates concerning your travel route. The fare from Brussels to Maastricht is estimated around €30,-.

Coming from Brussels South Charleroi Airport (Belgium)
When you arrive at Brussels South Charleroi Airport, you can travel to Maastricht railway station by train (+/- 1.5 hours). First you need to take the Brussels City Shuttle to travel from ‘Brussels South Charleroi Airport’ to the railway station ‘Bruxelles Midi’ (Brussels South).
Every 30 minutes the Brussels City Shuttle leaves the airport to the railway station ‘Bruxelles Midi’. The shuttle coach stop is located at the crossing of ‘rue de France’ and ‘rue de l’instruction’. The duration of the journey will be around 1 hour and the fare for a one way drive is € 14,00. Shuttle tickets are sold outside the airport terminal. From ‘Bruxelles Midi’ you can take the train to Maastricht railway station. The fare is estimated around €30,-. Reservation of any sort is not necessary. Railway tickets can be bought at the railway station ‘Bruxelles Midi’ at the services desks.
It is possible to plan your travel in advance. Check always the updates concerning your travel route.

Coming from Eindhoven Airport (NL)
When you arrive at Eindhoven Airport, you can travel to Maastricht railway station by public transport (+/- 1 hour). You can travel by bus to the railway station and by train from the railway station to Maastricht. You can buy a bus ticket from the bus driver and the railway ticket at the yellow vending machines. It is possible to plan your travel in advance. Check always the updates concerning your travel route.

Coming from Cologne/Bonn Airport (Köln/Bonn in Germany)
When you arrive at Köln/Bonn Flughafen (Cologne/Bonn Airport), you can travel to Maastricht railway station by train (+/- 2 hours). An Intercity-Express (ICE) railway station is located right in the center of the Cologne/Bonn Airport. Tickets can be bought at the railway station. It is possible to plan your travel in advance. Check always the updates concerning your travel route.

Coming from Düsseldorf International Airport (Germany)
When arriving at Düsseldorf Flughafen (Düsseldorf Airport), the SkyTrain cabin railway connects the terminal building and the railway station at Düsseldorf Airport. There are two stops within the terminal building: the ‘Terminal A/B” and the “Terminal C”. These stops are signposted. The luggage carts cannot be taken onto the SkyTrain, but enough luggage storage is provided in the SkyTrain cabine. You can buy a ticket at the ticket vending machines which are located at the SkyTrain stations. When the SkyTrain is not in service, a shuttle bus is provided. The terminal bus stop is located on the arrivals level (across from Exit E). From the railway station at Düsseldorf Airport you can use public transport in order to travel to Maastricht Station (+/- 2.5 hours). Railway tickets can be bought at the ticket offices or at ticket vending machines at the railway station. It is possible to plan your travel in advance. Check always the updates concerning your travel route.

Coming from Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam, NL)
When you arrive at Schiphol Airport, you can travel from Schiphol/Amsterdam Airport to Maastricht Central Station (+/- 2.5 hours). You can buy a bus ticket from the bus driver and the railway ticket at the yellow vending machines. It is possible to plan your travel in advance. Check always the updates concerning your travel route.

Dr Miriam Kullmann joined Shaping Future Directions in EU Labour Law project:
Dr Miriam Kullmann has joined the British Academy funded Shaping Future Directions in EU Labour Law project being organised by Prof Jeremias Prassl at Magdalen College, University of Oxford. This six-month project will connect early career academics with senior european institution officials who will share their insights into the realities of policy making and help the academics make their latest research more accessible to policy making audiences. Policy oriented research developed through the project will be presented at an INLACRIS conference in Cagliari in December 2015.

Can Asian carbon trading schemes learn from EU case law?
While the EU has set up in 2003 a legal framework for an EU wide emissions trading scheme with the aim of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, countries such as China and Korea have more recently started to apply this instrument. Meanwhile, many court procedures have emerged in the EU regarding the emissions trading system. Professor Marjan Peeters will has delivered a presentation to the conference “Lessons from the evaluation of existing Emission Trading Schemes in China, Korea and the European Union for future design” thereby discussing what lessons can be drawn from the case law experience with the EU ETS for the legal design of an carbon trading scheme. The conference (on 3 – 4 November 2016) was organised by the School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing. Professor Peeters delivered her presentation through skype, also in view of avoiding carbon emissions caused by travelling to China.  In this sense, it is also an experiment with doing scholarly work thereby producing less carbon emissions.

Lunch lecture Marjan Peeters:
February the 16th 2016 Prof. dr. Marjan Peeters will deliver a lunch lecture about “Climate policy and law” at the ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. During the lecture Marjan will focus on developments in European climate law in light of the Paris Agreement from 12 December 2015 and the consequences thereof for EU and particularly national climate law. Marjan was recently heard concerning the Urgenda-case at the roundtable meeting in the Parliament. In 2010 Marjan was commissioned by the ministry to research the usefullness of a national climate act for the Netherlands.

Oswald in Stockholm:
The 8th of september 2015 prof. Oswald Jansen gave a lecture at a seminar on the Freedom of Information at the Södertorn University in Stockholm. The lecture was entitled: “Open government and access to documents: recent developments in the Netherlands.” Monday the 7th Oswald also lectured about the system of Dutch administrative law and silence of the administration from a comparative point of view.

On the 10th and 11th of September 2015 Oswald participated in the ‘7. Speyerer Tage zum Friedhofs- und Bestattungsrecht’. He gave a lecture which was entitled: “Bestattungsrecht in den Niederlanden: Andere Antworten auf dieselben Fragen?” (a lecture about the law of cemetaries and funerals).

The Mongolian Rule of Law:
Prof. Oswald Jansen participates as an international expert in a project of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) on assignment of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) which is aimed at the enforcement of the rule of law in Mongolia. Oswald will educate bailiffs about serving and executing administrative judgements. Doing so, Oswald will travel to Ulaanbaatar in March 2016.    

Latest news:

De Hofvijver
The new Hofvijver has been published (October 2016).

More Constitutional law related news. 

Latest news:

Lunch lecture Marjan Peeters:
February the 16th 2016 Prof. dr. Marjan Peeters will deliver a lunch lecture about “Climate policy and law” at the ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. During the lecture Marjan will focus on developments in European climate law in light of the Paris Agreement from 12 December 2015 and the consequences thereof for EU and particularly national climate law. Marjan was recently heard concerning the Urgenda-case at the roundtable meeting in the Parliament. In 2010 Marjan was commissioned by the ministry to research the usefullness of a national climate act for the Netherlands.
     
More Administrative law related news. 

Latest news:

Dr Miriam Kullmann has joined the British Academy funded Shaping Future Directions in EU Labour Law project being organised by Prof Jeremias Prassl at Magdalen College, University of Oxford. This six-month project will connect early career academics with senior european institution officials who will share their insights into the realities of policy making and help the academics make their latest research more accessible to policy making audiences. Policy oriented research developed through the project will be presented at an INLACRIS conference in Cagliari in December 2015.

More Social law related news. 

Public law involves the study of the relationship between individuals and the state, focusing on the structure and regulation of public institutions to uphold the rule of law, democracy, and fundamental rights. As a Dutch University, the jumping off point for our research is informed by our national context and goal of advancing high-quality research on Public Law which will benefit Dutch society. In line with the Faculty of Law’s commitment to research that is both societally relevant and interdisciplinary, we explore the evolution and resilience of public legal institutions through the lens of real-world challenges and broader social transformations. Equally, our location in a small city at the heart of Europe — where the European Union was born in 1992 via the Maastricht Treaty — offers a unique position at the crossroads of Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, which we use to explore the interplay of Dutch, European, and International Law from a Comparative Law perspective. 

With approximately 45 staff, our Department enjoys a strong international reputation owing to its high research output and extensive networks within the Netherlands, the Benelux region, Europe, and internationally. Known for its interdisciplinary and comparative approach, the Department consistently produces impactful research on Constitutional, Administrative, and Social Law, with a focus on Dutch, European, and International Law and Governance. Its scholars are active contributors to leading international journals, collaborative research projects, and policy-relevant initiatives.

 Our approach is comparative, critical, and grounded in a desire to study real-world problems. Methodologically, the Department is diverse; scholars engage with doctrinal, comparative, normative, critical, and empirical research approaches, often drawing on insights from other disciplines beyond legal studies. This interdisciplinary orientation reflects the Faculty’s broader research mission to connect legal scholarship with insights from political science, sociology, economics, and other disciplines. In particular, our research explores the following areas of Public Law: Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Social Law, European Law, Comparative Law, Human Rights, and Environmental Law. 

Research Networks

The Department’s research is embedded in several research centres and institutes of Maastricht University’s Faculty of Law. These include:

The Maastricht Research Centre for the Dutch Legal System (MOSaR) supports innovative, interdisciplinary research on the development and resilience of the Dutch legal system within its European context.

The Maastricht Centre for European Law (MCEL), which explores European law in its broader constitutional and political dimensions, with particular attention to the balance between uniformity and differentiation in the Union’s legal order.

The Globalisation and Law Network, which examines how legal systems respond to globalisation and the implications for sovereignty, legitimacy, and institutional reform.

The Ius Commune Research School, a collaborative interuniversity initiative in which our researchers engage with colleagues across the Netherlands and Belgium to study the interaction of legal traditions in Europe.    

 In addition, researchers from the Department contribute to initiatives in the Montesquieu Institute and CERiM, further strengthening our interdisciplinary and cross-border outlook. These institutional connections reinforce the Faculty’s ambition to foster excellence in legal research that transcends disciplinary and national boundaries and engages with the most pressing normative and institutional questions of our time.

 

• The teaching for which the Department of Public Law is responsible is closely aligned with the research carried out by its staff. The Department offers a wide and comprehensive variety of courses. 
  
  In the bachelor phase the Department provides the following compulsory and elective courses:
• Bachelor Dutch Law: Inleiding Bestuursrecht (PUB1101), Inleiding Staatsrecht (PUB1102), Bestuurs- en Europees Procesrecht (PUB2032), Staats- en Bestuursrecht (PUB2033), Arbeidsrecht (PUB3017), Bestuursprocesrecht (MET2204)
• Bachelor European Law School: Constitutional Law (PUB1201), Administrative Law (PUB2201) and European Administrative Law (PUB3003), European Human Rights (LAW2006) and Privacy (LAW3067)
• Bachelor University College Maastricht: Law and Society (SSC2027) and Comparative Constitutional Law (SSC2060)

Within the different bachelor programmes, exchange of electives is possible. The full curriculum is accessible via: https://curriculum.maastrichtuniversity.nl/education/bachelor/organisation/faculty-of-law-160

 

In the master phase the Department of Public Law provides the following courses:

• Master Dutch Law:
  • Specialisatie Staats- en Bestuursrecht: Verdieping Bestuursrecht (PUB4020), Verdieping Staatsrecht (PUB4028), Omgevingsrecht (PUB4029), Europees en Nationaal Constitutioneel Recht (PUB4021), Openbaar Bestuur (PUB4022) en Overheid & Privaatrecht (PUB4012)
  • Specialisatie Arbeids- en Socialezekerheidsrecht en Specialisatie Recht en Arbeid: Arbeidsrecht I (PUB4014), Arbeidsrecht II (PUB4015), Sociale Zekerheid I (PUB4018), Sociale Zekerheid II (PUB4001) en Europeanisering Sociaal Recht (PUB4027) en Geschillen in de onderneming (PUB4019)
• Master Recht en Arbeid: zie ‘Specialisatie Arbeids- en Socialezekerheidsrecht, Gezondheidsrecht I (LAW4001) en Gezondheidsrecht II (LAW4002)
• Master European Law School: European and National Constitutional Law (PUB4023) and European Labour and Social Security Law (PUB4007)

Within the different master programmes, exchange of electives is possible. The full curriculum is accessible via: https://curriculum.maastrichtuniversity.nl/nl/onderwijs/master/organisation/faculty-of-law-160

The staff of the Public Law Department supervises the Maastricht teams participating in several moot court and debate competitions each year." Amongst others:

• VAR-pleitwedstrijd
• Studentenparlement

• Concours européen des Droits de l’Homme René Cassin

   

For an overview of all the Mooting Competitions the faculty engages in, please refer to: https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/about-um/faculties/law/education/mooting-competitions/mooting-competitions

Together with LAW.next, researchers of the Department of Public Law also offer a great variety of post-academic courses and courses for legal professionals. Please refer to: https://law-next.nl/