Wiarda Prize 2021 for excellent academic publications awarded to Laura Henderson

Laura Henderson:  "Internalizing Contestation in Process-Based Judicial Review"

The cases challenging the European Stability Mechanism in Eurozone creditor states show the concern courts have with protecting and promoting democratic contestation. This Article shows how John Hart Ely’s theory of process-based review provides the theoretical basis for understanding how attention to democratic contestation contributes to the legitimacy of courts reviewing legislation against constitutional norms. By focusing on promoting democratic procedures, Ely argues that courts can avoid substantive decisions that are best left to the legislature. Yet, as my discussion of the constitutional theory of constituent and constituted powers shows, no form of constituted power can avoid some exercise of constituent power. In other words, even a process-based approach cannot avoid substantive judgments. The legitimacy of these decisions depends on the availability of avenues for contestation in the judicial decision-making process itself. [Read the full article]

Anna Vera van Beusekom:  "The private law legal relationship in crowdlending"

(Translated from the article written in Dutch: "De privaatrechtelijke rechtsverhoudingen bij crowdlending”) This article deals with some aspects of the private law legal relationships between the parties involved in crowdlending, partly through an empirical analysis of the general terms and conditions of ten large crowd funding platforms. In the absence of crowdfunding-specific (private law) legislation, the Dutch Civil Code is applicable. The question is how the legal relationships should be interpreted. This is not always clear, largely due to the special nature of the multi-party relationship and the involvement of both the crowdfunding platform and the group of funders , whereas this interpretation is of great importance for the determination of the legal position of the parties involved. In the literature these aspects have hardly been discussed.

Lisa Ansems: “Speaking of Justice: A Qualitative Interview Study on Perceived Procedural Justice Among Defendants in Dutch Criminal Cases”

Qualitative interviews with one hundred defendants in Dutch criminal cases examine whether perceived procedural justice is a relevant concern for defendants, and, if so, which procedural justice components they refer to. The study provides a point of epistemological departure from the quantitative studies dominating the field, as it assessed which components of procedural justice (if any) respondents put forward themselves rather than asking about predetermined procedural justice components. The large majority of respondents mentioned procedural justice issues themselves, and six components were at the core of their procedural justice perceptions: (1) information on which decisions are based, (2) interpersonal treatment, (3) due consideration,(4) neutrality, (5) voice, and (6) accuracy. Although these procedural justice components largely correspond with the literature, respondents thus mentioned some components more often, and others less often, than the literature would suggest. In particular, neutrality plays an important role in the Dutch legal context examined here.

The jury

The jury for this prize consisted of representatives of the core research areas and the research gems, one representing each programme: 

• for ERI, dr. Sonja Bekker
• for UCWOSL Prof. Seline Trevisanut (chair)
• for UCERF, dr. Brenda Oude Breuil
• for the Montaigne Center, Prof. Kees van den Bos
• for Renforce, Dr. Machiko Kanetake
• for UCALL Prof.Tomas Arons

About the Wiarda prize

The Research Council of Utrecht University's School of Law organises a biannual competition offering a prize for excellent academic publications. The competition is open to researchers working at the School of Law of the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance of Utrecht University.

The prize is named after Prof. Gerard Wiarda, between 1947 and 1950 professor of Administrative Law in Utrecht and former chairman of the Supreme Court.