Education
Education and teaching at the department include a variety of topics related to the theoretical and practical application of criminal law and criminology. Our approach to teaching is problem based, and courses are offered in both Dutch and English. Our teaching staff is closely involved with the unique Master’s Programme Forensics, Criminology and Law, which offers a multidisciplinary approach to the study of crime for national and international students who wish to pursue a career within criminal justice.

Research
Research at the department is interdisciplinary and covers the fields of criminal law, criminology, psychology, neurosciences and forensics. Our main area of interest is examining how criminal justice systems and implemented and how they resonate at both, the societal and individual level. While research on substantive and procedural criminal law is oriented towards the European and international context, the research conducted within criminology focuses on the nature, extent and impact of different forms of crime. Research is carried out at both national and international level, and is embedded within the Maastricht Institute for Criminal Sciences.

MARICAP

The Department of Private Law is responsible for teaching and research in the broad field of private law. This field covers not only contract law, tort law and property law, but also commercial law, company law and family law. The Department equally covers private international law and insolvency law. The Department hosts about 40 staff members.

As to education, the Department teaches a wide variety of courses in both the bachelor and master stage. Characteristic for the Maastricht approach is that courses are not only offered on Dutch law (in the bachelor on Rechtsgeleerdheid and in various masters), but also on European and comparative private law (in the bachelor European Law School and masters). Special attention is paid to the role of law in its international, societal and economic context.

The research of the Department is embedded in both the Ius Commune Research School and various research institutes: the Maastricht European Private Law Institute (MEPLI), the Institute for Corporate Law, Governance and Innovation (ICGI) and the Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (Macimide). Research is focused on Europeanisation, globalisation and migration.

The Foundations of Law Department focuses on the normative, historical, and conceptual foundations of law from a multi-disciplinary perspective. 

One way of understanding the legal discipline is by focusing on the relation between its doctrinal and meta-juridical sub-disciplines. The doctrinal sub-disciplines – juridica – focus on the study of positive law in particular areas, for example, private law, constitutional law, criminal law, or environmental law. Metajuridica consists of a number of separate non-legal disciplines, each of which provides important insights about positive law from its own external perspective.

Within the Foundations department, legal doctrine is studied in its meta-juridical context. The members primarily conduct research and teach courses in the field of legal history, philosophy of law, legal theory, and law and economics.

Legal historians primarily focus on the historical foundations of law by studying the genesis and evolution of law. In doing so, they aim to achieve a better understanding of prevailing rules and doctrines. A good historical understanding helps to expose and explain the relationship between the different legal systems. This also allows for the identification of paths towards future harmonised law, both within Europe and beyond.

From a legal-historical perspective, the central question is why certain legal doctrines have historically been shaped in a certain way. The complementary question from legal philosophy is whether these legal solutions still stand the test of time, or whether more defensible alternatives are available.

Philosophers of law primarily focus on the normative foundations of law and look for answers to questions about the nature of law and its desirable content, relatively dissociated from what present prevailing law dictates. Such questions include how law differs from morality or politics, whether there is a duty to obey the law, what justifies the existence of the state, why people can be punished for violating state law, why agreements are binding, and why the state is allowed to collect taxes.

Legal theorists turn their attention primarily to the reasoning of the jurist and focus on law as a systematic and coherent system of norms. Typical questions include how to correctly interpret legal rules, what the (logical) relations among legal rules is, whether it is possible to set aside legal rules or declare them non-binding, and what rights are and how they relate to duties and responsibilities.

Scholars in Law and economics apply economic concepts to the study of law. This discipline examines in particular the incentive and welfare properties of law. Law and economics-scholars study how different allocations of legal rights affect social welfare and economic efficiency and aim to assess which legal instrument is best to deal efficiently with a social problem.

Research in the Foundations department is based on the idea that a proper understanding of positive law presupposes a solid understanding of the contexts in which law functions: the contingent historical tradition from which our current legal system has emerged; how law can be understood as a complex but consistent legal system of norms; and how positive law is embedded in broader normative-philosophical debates on democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

For the specific research themes and academic publications of individual researchers, one can consult their personal profile pages.

In the European Law School bachelor’s program, the department is responsible for the courses Foundations of Law (MET1201), Philosophy of Private Law, and the electives Legal philosophy (MET3003), and Global Legal History (from the academic year 2025-26 onwards). The department is also responsible for courses at Hasselt University (Belgium): History of Law, Legal Philosophy, European Integration and Law and Economics.

In the various Master programs, the department is responsible for the courses Foundations of Global Law (MET4011) in the Master Globalisation and Law, The Foundations of European Institutionalization (MET4010) in the Master European Law School, and Between Public and Private: a Meta-juridical Analysis (MET4012), in the Master of Dutch Law.

At the WHO venue in Copenhagen the closing conference of INPROFOOD took place on 14 and 15 October 2014. Work package leaders and other partner of the INPROFOOD consortium presented the results obtained with this project.

The project aim was to involve all relevant stakeholders concerning research programming in the field of food and health in the involved European countries. Stakeholder involvement had been identified as one of the big topics, to tackle food related issues over the long term. Therefore, INPROFOOD did not only focus on bringing information on research programming to policy makers, but also produce advice concerning the methodology to involve stakeholders from the public, private and CSO sector.

Especially outcomes of Work package 1, 2, 3 and 4 were presented and gave a good overview of the goals that have been reached in the last three years.

WP 1 focused on mapping the current situation of research programming. Every project partner selected a specific research theme in its country that was related to food and health. Based on desk research and interviews, mapping of research programming occurred. Main result of this work package was the fact that many countries suffer from a problem of power asymmetry. This means that there is too much influence of one stakeholder in the process of responsible research and innovation.

In WP 2, the European Awareness Scenario Workshops have been organised. In these workshops, stakeholders from different categories (private, public and CSO’s) were brought together to open the dialogue on the worst and best case scenario with regard to research programming and research funding in the field of food and health. The outcomes of this work package in most countries were related to problems in the decision making process, such as problems with transparency and discordance between political issues and independent scientific research.

WP 3 entailed the Open Space Conference, which is a method to promote public engagement and discuss topics that are currently relevant in a specific field. During the Open Space Conference, participants are invited to come up with their own topic for a workshop. In that way, only relevant topics that have the attention of the participants are being discussed. Topics which attracted most attention were related to defining the concept of healthy food and a healthy lifestyle and communication and education to promote healthy eating behavior.

Finally, work package 4 results in an action plan, where the outcomes of the previous work packages are summarized. To develop the action plan, first a stakeholder analysis and social network policy analysis have been produced. In these reports, an overview can be found of the relevant stakeholders in each country and their role and interaction in the process of research programming and innovation. The action plan is currently still under construction and therefore no definitive results were presented.

In the following links, several of the presentations given at the closing ceremony can be found.
 
Closing Ceremony WP 1 – University of Surrey
Closing Ceremony WP 2 – Agropolis
Closing Ceremony WP 2 – Case of Italy
Closing Ceremony WP 2 – Case of France

On 8 October 2014, the INPROFOOD team of Maastricht University organised a workshop in the Limburgs museum in Venlo. INPROFOOD will end on 31 October 2014 and therefore this workshop aimed to present the final results of the project to the public. The aims and goals of INPROFOOD were presented, together with an evaluation of the methodology and the outcomes of the project. The main focus of the presentation was on the work packages in which Maastricht University has been actively involved. In the following link, you can find the INPROFOOD-presentation given at this workshop.

During the second half of the day, the topic of discussion was implementation and enforcement of the Nutrition and Health Claim Regulation. For the participants of the INPROFOOD project this is a very relevant topic, since food claims are suggested to be a medium to promote innovation in the field of food and health and promote a healthier lifestyle. From the discussion, it appeared that there are big differences in enforcement strategies between EU Member States and also the use of health claims on the internet can raise unjust use of claims and therefore lead to unfair competition. 

The public of this day consisted of 50 people, affiliated with several relevant stakeholders from the public and private sector and students from Maastricht University, related to the field of food and health.  

On 26 and 27 May 2014, the INPROFOOD team of Maastricht University visited a workshop organized by the WHO in Copenhagen. Our project partners of the WHO organized this workshop, as part of work package 4, to discuss the increase of public engagement in research. 

In the workshops, 70 participants from different countries and stakeholder categories were involved. Participants were affiliated with different ministries, patient organizations, universities, research institutions and branch organizations. In small groups challenges around stakeholder participation, public engagement and transparency in research programming in food, nutrition and health were discussed.  In addition, three keynote speakers were invited, who touched upon public engagement, stakeholder collaboration and the development of a common action plan. 

The information collected during this workshop will be used as a basis for the Mobilization and Mutual Learning Action Plan (MMLAP), which will be developed as one of the objectives of the INPROFOOD project.

On 28 March 2014 the INPROFOOD team of Maastricht University provided a presentation on the project at a book presentation in Brussels. Interested parties were invited to attend the presentation, which gave an overview of the background, aim and structure of the project. In addition, preliminary results have been presented. 
Aim of this presentation was to generate awareness for the INPROFOOD project and get new, relevant stakeholders involved in the project. The public of the presentation mainly consisted of lawyers and policy makers in the field of food, nutrition and trade.

Maastricht Law Faculty is a partner in the DREAM (Disability Rights Expanding Accessible Markets) FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network. The Pan-European doctoral research project will run for 4 years, and focuses on research that will find practical ways of making the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons for Disabilities a reality in the daily lives of people with disabilities in Europe. The DREAM Network has been awarded a grant by the European Commission of 3.7 million euros, with approximately 450 000 euros being ear-marked for Maastricht.        

The project will be coordinated by the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and involves five other academic research centres based in the United Kingdom, Spain, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. Several leading international research institutes will also contribute, including the Harvard Project in Disability.

The project is premised on the idea that smart EU policy initiatives on disability are not just good for people with disabilities, but also help expand markets and increase overall levels of economic activity. Digital Europe, the main umbrella body for European software and hardware manufactures and services, is a key commercial partner in the project.        

14 Early Stage Researchers, or Ph.D. researchers, will be funded under the project, of which two will be based in Maastricht (one in the Ius Commune Research School and one in the Human Rights Research School). All the researchers will carry out at least one paid internship at a leading European civil society organisation, such as Interights (London), Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (Budapest), the European Disability Forum (Brussels) or the European Group of Human Rights Commissions.         

Lisa Waddington is leading Maastricht's involvement in the project.

About

OPENCULT focused on the use of the open method of coordination (OMC) as one of the new cultural policy tools employed by the EU in the wake of the European Agenda for Culture in a Globalizing World (COM(2007) 242). The project studied the configuration of the cultural OMC, the institutional structures and policy objectives that define it, and the complex array of policy processes and instruments that it involves. It explored whether the cultural OMC has had a bearing on Member States’ cultural policies and it also examined its effects on EU cultural action.

Project funding: Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union, Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie), Intra-European Fellowships (IEF), grant agreement FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF no. 327091

The main objectives of OPENCULT were the following:

 to study the genesis of the cultural OMC and map the policy objectives, institutional 
 arrangements, processes, procedures and instruments  that determine it;
 to examine in a comparative fashion the effects of the cultural OMC on Member 
 States’ cultural policies;
 to investigate the effects of the cultural OMC on EU cultural action;
 to identify the factors that can strengthen the ability of the cultural OMC to contribute 
 to the development of national and EU policies that  protect and promote cultural
 diversity;
 to ensure broad diffusion of the project’s findings and stress its relevance for cultural
 policy-making.  

OPENCULT’s work plan consisted of four phases.

Phase 1 – State of the art
 

Phase 1 set the theoretical framework of the project. It provided a critical overview of the state of the art and existing literature on EU cultural action, national cultural policy-making in the light of European integration and the OMC. In particular, it contextualized the OMC within the broader debate on EU governance and addressed the establishment and evolution of EU cultural policy and its interaction with Member States’ cultural policies.
 

Phase 2 – Empirical analysis
 

Phase 2 engaged in empirical analysis, involving in-depth research on: 
a) the configuration of the cultural OMC and its evolution in the context of two distinct cycles (2008-2010; 2011-2014);
b) the effects of the cultural OMC on Member States’ cultural policies; and 
c) the effects of the cultural OMC on the EU’s cultural policy and broader cultural action.  
 

Phase 3 – Analysis of empirical data
 

Phase 3 focused on the analysis of the empirical data collected. It sought to:
a) evaluate and explain similarities and differences as regards the effects of the cultural OMC on Member States’ cultural policies; and 
b) assess the impact of the cultural OMC on the EU’s cultural activity. 

Phase 4 – Dissemination of results

Phase 4 run throughout the duration of the project. It was designed to achieve the widest possible diffusion of the project’s scientific and policy-related output and access the project’s potential users and key target groups: academics, researchers, national and EU cultural policy-makers, civil society and the public at large.

Project duration: February 2014-September 2016

European Commission, Culture 
European Agenda for Culture  
The Cultural OMC
European Parliament, Committee on Culture and Education
Council of the European Union, Education, Youth, Culture and Sport 
European Commission, Research and Innovation, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions