Equality and justice for all by all

The red line in my work is to contribute to a legal system that delivers on its promises to the people and that ensures that responsibility is taken by all those that have the power to bring about equality and justice.   

With great pleasure, I hold the chair in European law at Utrecht University since 2013. In view of my motto hereabove, the conceptual, normative and constitutional underpinnings of regulation and enforcement across and beyond the EU's policy domains are an important focus in my teaching, research and impact related activities. I value highly to not only take an internal but also external, contextual and living constitution perspective on this. Throughout my career I have been inspired in this regard by many visiting professorships and research stays abroad, including at the University of Edinburgh, Michigan, Connecticut, Beijing, Singapore, Rijeka, Vilnius, Aruba, Istanbul and Konstanz.

My background lies in studying international law (1992), European Studies, including also French and Spanish (1992) and Dutch law (1996) at the University of Amsterdam. I obtained my doctorate degree in 2003 at Tilburg University for my thesis on Soft law in European Community Law. Its relationship to legislation (Hart Publishing, 2004). I started out as a lecturer in European law at the University of Amsterdam and then Tilburg University, where I was appointed professor of EU law in 2004. 

I have been a co-founder and -director of the Utrecht Centre for Regulation and Enforcement in Europe - RENFORCE - until 2021 (https://www.uu.nl/onderzoek/utrecht-centre-for-regulation-and-enforcement-in-europe). 

Key work comprises De Cock Buning and Senden (eds), Private Regulation and Enforcement in the EU. Finding the Right Balance from a Citizen's Perspective, Hart Publishing 2020, the development of the RENFORCE- CoCoT project (https://www.uu.nl/en/research/utrecht-centre-for-regulation-and-enforcement-in-europe/building-blocks/foundations-of-shared-regulation-and-enforcement-for-a-stronger-europe), supervision of various PhD theses and a number of EU gender equality law related projects. 

In 2018, I was one of the founders of what is now the UU interdisciplinary IOS Platform on Gender, Diversity and Global Justice and I am a co-lead since then (https://www.uu.nl/onderzoek/institutions-for-open-societies/gender-diversity-and-global-justice/). During my career I have also been involved in different ways in the gender stream of the European Commission's European Equality Law Network, being a coordinator of it since 2019 (https://www.equalitylaw.eu/).

Currently I am also the project leader (PI) of the interdisciplinary Horizon Europe RE-WIRING project on Realising Girls' and Women's Inclusion, Representation and Empowerment, which runs from 2023-2026 (https://re-wiring.eu/)

Other expert activities 

As a member of the Dutch VOG-P Commission, I am involved in the checking of the issuing process of certificates of conduct that rely on police data. 

On a regular basis, I contribute to other EU law related projects for different bodies such as the European Commission, European Parliament, OECD, Dutch Council of State, Dutch Ministries, Dutch Scientific Council and CEC European Managers. 

I have also been a member of the AIV advisory body on international and European affairs to the Dutch government and parliament (2012-2019), a member of the Steering Committee of the Community of Practice on Co- and Self-regulation in Europe of the European Commission (DG Connect) (2013-2017) and a member of the editorial board of the Nederlands tijdschrift voor Europees recht (2005-2017).