Zwart teaches courses on comparative constitutional and administrative law, comparative law, global law and human rights at Utrecht and universities abroad.
Together with his then Utrecht colleague Bart Stapert he developed the adversarial method of teaching, which involves two teachers taking opposite sides in a debate, while inviting the students to join and support them. This method is very well suited for teaching controversial issues, like the merits of ‘originalism’ and ‘living instrumentalism’ as means of constitutional interpretation in the U.S.
Zwart has developed a course on ‘judicial strategies’ which discusses strategic behaviour of courts vis-à-vis the political branches while relying on cases from ten jurisdictions. The course builds on insights from law and political science, in particular the work of Epstein and Knight on rational choice by judges.
In 2006 Zwart designed a transnational law program on the basis of the presumption that it is important for law students to familiarise themselves with a mix of legal systems, instead of focussing on one single jurisdiction from day one. The program has been adopted by a consortium consisting of the Universities of Utrecht and Trento, Washington University (St. Louis), Universidade Católica Portuguese and Queen’s University Belfast and it opened it doors in 2008.
Involved in the following course(s)