Xandra Kramer is professor Private International Law at Utrecht University (0,2fte) and combines this with a professorship Private Law (with a focus on international and European civil procedure) at Erasmus University Rotterdam (0,8fte). From 2008-2024, she was a Deputy Judge at the District Court of Rotterdam. She studied law at Leiden University (cum laude). Her first (student) article was awarded with the Ars Aequi prize (1996). She was assistant professor at Leiden University and obtained her Ph.D. on provisional measures and private international law in 2001. She worked as an assistant and associate professor at Erasmus School of Law and was appointed full professor on 1 February 2011 (chair European Civil Procedure, as of 1 September 2017 Private Law). On 1 November 2016, she was appointed part-time professor at Utrecht University. For a profile and publications at Erasmus University Rotterdam, see here.

In 2019, she was elected member to the Dutch Royal Society of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and currently chairs the Law section. She is an elected member of the Institute de Droit International (IDI) (2019). Currently she serves on the Council of the European Law Institute (ELI).

Teaching future generations of conscious lawyers and promoting tailor-made access to justice

Xandra teaches and conducts research in the area of private international law, (European) civil procedure and comparative law. She published numerous articles and books in these areas. She is particularly fascinated by the cross-roads between economic efficiency and procedural fairness, the actual functioning of civil justice systems and its impact on litigants, transnational complex litigation and the harmonisation of EU private international law and civil procedure. Current key areas of research include collective actions, international contracting, costs and funding regulation, digitisation of civil justice, ADR and ODR. Her research combines doctrinal legal research, comparative law, policy-oriented and (qualitative) empirical research to enable a full understanding of international litigation and access to justice and to generate impact through supporting policy-making and informing the public (for the latter, see media, below). 

Research acknowledgment and policy-related research

She was awarded a research fellowship for a project on the harmonisation of civil procedure in the EU by the Board of Erasmus University (2004). In 2010, she was awarded a prestigious VIDI-grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for a research on Securing Quality in Cross-Border Enforcement in the EU (2011-2016). In 2016, she obtained an ERC consolidator grant for her project Building EU civil justice: challenges of procedural innovations bridging access to justice (2017-2022). In 2020, she obtained a VICI grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for her project on Affordable access to justice: towards sustainable cost and funding mechanisms for civil litigation in Europe (2020-2025, see press release). 

She has been a project leader and has participated in numerous studies for the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, the European Parliament, and the European Commission. Recent work includes a reports for the Ministry of Justice on collective actions on financing collective actions (2023, see WODC Report), and for European institutions, projects on Third Party Litigation Funding; advisor (2024-2025), countering Strategic  Litigation against Public Participation - SLAPPs; expert EC (2022-ongoing) resulting in the SLAPPs Directive, evaluation ADR and ODR instruments; advisor (2022), international contracts evaluation study Rome II; reporter (2020-2021), and digitisation of justice, advisor (2020), supporting the preparation of the Regulation on Digitalisation. 

In 2025, she established the European Civil Civil Justice Centre.

In the media and public expert contributions

• Interview national newspaper NRC Handelsblad (by Wouter van Loon), Hoeveel kans maakt de massaclaim tegen Tata Steel, 20 December 2025
• Interview news program NOS Nieuwsuur, Massa claim tegen Tata Steel, 19 December 2025
• Interview national newspaper De Telegraaf (by Pieter Van Erven Dorens), Regen aan massaclaims dankzij nieuwe wet, maar voor wie hoopt op flinke som geld is er slecht nieuws, 11 December 2025
• Interview Courthouse News Service (by Eunseo Hong), Dutch consumers win green light to sue Apple over app store fees, 2 December 2025
• Interview European Consumer Organisation BEUC, Collective redress in theNetherlands after 5 years, Newletter BEUC, From Collective Harm to Redress: what’s new, Novemer 2025, p. 4-6
• Interview national newspaper Volkskrant (by Jurren van den Berg), Collectieve vuist: massaclaims als redmiddel tegen misstanden, 24 november 2025 (p. 13-15)
• Interview national newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (by Marlies van Leeuwen), Heeft massaclaim na hack zin? ‘Nog geen goede voorbeelden van geslaagde claims met schadevergoeding’, 31 August 2025
• Interview for news program broadcast EenVandaag (NPO), Massaclaims datalek bevolkingsonderzoek (mass claim data breach population health screening), 27 August 2025
• Interview online forum of news program EenVandaag (by Margot Hoogerwerf), Dienen we vaker een massaclaim in en heeft dat nut? Jullie vragen over collectieve schadevergoedingen beantwoord, 6 July 2025
• Interview newspaper NRC Handelsblad (by Boris Bouwman), Maakt de claim tegen Booking.com wegens misleiding enige kans?, 27 June 2025
• Podcast Deminor, EU Mapping Study on Third-Party Litigation Funding: Insights, Challenges, and Developments, 19 March 2025

Key (edited) books on Private International Law:

• X.E. Kramer/L. Carballo Piñeiro (eds), Research Methods in Private International Law: A Handbook on Regulation, Research and Teaching, Elgar 2024
• Asser/Kramer & Verhagen, Internationaal Privaatrecht 10-III, Internationaal vermogensrecht 2022

Key (edited) books on Civil Procedure:

• X.E. Kramer, S. Voet & A. Dori, Handbook European Civil Procedure, De Gruyter Brill 2026
• X.E. Kramer, M. Ahmed, A. Dori & C. Ucín (eds.), Sustaining Access to Justice: New Avenues for Costs and Funding, Hart/Bloomsbury Publishing 2025
• X.E. Kramer, I. Tzankova, J. Hoevenaars & C.J.M. van Doorn, Financing Collective Actions in the Netherlands: Towards a Litigation Fund?, Eleven International Publishing 2024 (open access)
• X.E. Kramer, S. Voet, L. Ködderitzsch, M. Tulibacka and B. Hess (eds), Delivering Justice: A Holistic and Multidisciplinary Approach, Hart Publishing/Bloomsbury, 2022.
• X.E. Kramer, J. Hoevenaars, B. Kas & E. Themeli (eds), Frontiers in Civil Justice: Privatisation, Monetisation and Digitisation, Edward Elgar, 2022
• X.E. Kramer, A. Biard, J. Hoevenaars & E. Themeli (eds), New Pathways to Civil Justice in Europe, Springer 2021
• X.E. Kramer & J. Sorabji (eds.), International Business Courts: A European and Global Perspective, Eleven International Publishing 2019 (full open access)
• B. Hess & X.E. Kramer (eds), From Common Rules to Best Practices in European Civil Procedure, Baden-Baden/Oxford: Nomos/Hart 2017
• X.E. Kramer & C.H. van Rhee (eds), Civil Litigation in a Globalising World, Springer 2012

Most papers in English are accessible on SSRN and project-related publications and activities on www.euciviljustice.eu