Prof Dr Mr Aalt Willem Heringa (A.W.)
Author and editor of numerous books and articles on Dutch Constitutional law, the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Social Charter, comparative constitutional law, US constitutional law, Human Rights and legal education. Author of blogs on the Montesquieu Institute website.
His most recent authored books are: Legal Education (Intersentia 2013); Constitutions Compared (Intersentia 2016, fourth edition), An Introduction to Comparative Constitutional Law; and a textbook on Dutch Constitutional Law, Staatsrecht (with co-authors L. Verhey, J. van der Velde and W. van der Woude; 13th edition, 2018). In 2011 an edited collection appeared about legal education in Europe: Educating European Lawyers, Intersentia 2011 (with co-editor Bram Akkermans). And in 2014 he co-edited with Sascha Hardt: Sources of Constitutional Law (Intersentia 2014).
Expertises
- (European) Human Rights
- (Comparative) Constitutional Law
- The interaction between European / international and national law
- Constitutional Interpretation - Judicial Review
- Legal Education
Loopbaan
Aalt Willem Heringa (1955) graduated from the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden in 1978, where he worked until 1987 as an assistant professor. He was a visiting researcher at the Centre of European Governmental Studies of the University of Edinburgh (1986) and at the European Research Center of the Harvard Law School (1996). In 1989 he completed his Ph.D. thesis 'Sociale Grondrechten' (Social Rights). He has been working at Maastricht University, the Faculty of Law, since 1987; he was appointed full professor of (comparative) constitutional and administrative law in 1995. Since then he successfully supervised sixteen PhD’s.
Publications
Author and editor of numerous books and articles on Dutch Constitutional law, the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Social Charter, comparative constitutional law, US constitutional law, Human Rights and legal education.
His most recent authored books are: Legal Education (Intersentia 2013); Constitutions Compared (Intersentia 2016, fourth edition), An Introduction to Comparative Constitutional Law; and a textbook on Dutch Constitutional Law, Staatsrecht (with co-authors L. Verhey, J. van der Velde and W. van der Woude; 13th edition, 2018). In 2011 an edited collection appeared about legal education in Europe: Educating European Lawyers, Intersentia 2011 (with co-editor Bram Akkermans). And in 2014 he co-edited with Sascha Hardt: Sources of Constitutional Law (Intersentia 2014). In 2011 he wrote a forward looking article under the title: European Legal Education or Legal Education in Europe, Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, 18(3), 221-224 (also available on www.ssrn.com). See for further publications the Metis link on this page. Regular blogs and opinions are being published (in Dutch) on the website of the Montesquieu Institute (http://www.montesquieu-instituut.nl/ ) and the electronic journal published by the Montesquieu Institute (www.dehofvijver.com ). Furthermore he blogs regularly (in Dutch and in English) on the Faculty of Law blog forum www.lawblog.maastrichtuniversity.nl)
In 2013 he published with Hetty Geursen the book China in blogs en tekeningen (China in blogs and drawings) about their time in China in 2013 (www.bju.nl).
Other functions and journals
He served for many years as a Member of the Netherlands Commission on Equal Treatment. He is one of the founding editors of the NJCM Bulletin (the Dutch Human Rights Journal); of EHRC (European Human Rights Cases); of JB and JB+ (two administrative law journals); of the Maastricht Journal of European and comparative law (MJ); and of EVRM Rechtspraak & Commentaar (a loose leaf commentary on the European Convention of Human Rights). Furthermore he is editor in chief of the China EU Law Series and of the China EU Law Journal (both published by Springer). He served on the supervisory board of Hiil (the Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of the Law) and on the Supervisory Board of LVO (a major Limburg based school board for secondary education; from 1999 until 2010)). He iwas between 2010 and 2018 a member/vice chair of the supervisory board of Zuyderland, major care and cure organisation in the south of Limburg province. Betwen 2012 and 2017he also served on the Conseil d’Administration of Paris University Dauphine.
Between 2000 and 2005 Aalt Willem Heringa was president of the field-hockey club ‘Hockeer’, building two new artificial grass fields and a new accommodation/canteen. From 2003 until 2011 he served two terms of four years as Dean of the Law Faculty, was a member of the Management Team of Maastricht University as well as academic director of Maastricht University’s Campus Brussels. From 2006 until 2011 he was president of the Council of Law School Deans and of the Association of Law Faculties. Furthermore he was between 2009 and 2014 a member and vice-president of the Board of the International Association of Law Schools (IALS), and he is a substitute judge in the District Court of Roermond. He also sat on the Board of the China-EU School of Law (CESL) in Beijing, China (www.cesl.edu.cn ). Since 2012 he is director of the Montesquieu Institute Maastricht (http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/web/Institutes/MontesquieuInstituteMaastricht1.htm ) and he is Head of the Public Law Department. In 2013 he worked as European Co-Dean of the China EU School of Law in Beijing. Since 2016 he chairs the University Exams Appeals Board
Education
In the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University he was one of the founders of the LLM program, Magister Iuris Communis (master in comparative, European and international law, which was the predecessor of the master European Law School) and of the original and innovative European Law School LLB and LLM: the only programs to train European lawyers in an English taught program in European law, international law and comparative law. During his deanship the Faculty of Law developed itself as a truly international and European Law Faculty, with a great diversity in bachelor and master programs; an international staff and diversified student body. The Faculty underwent a renovation of its building, adapting it to modern day needs, and was successfully assessed in the 2010 Research and Education exercises. He is involved in innovation of legal education and coordinates a project in the Law Faculty to introduce video clips and electronic self tests as means of assisting students’ preparation and feedback.
External assessment assignments
He was a member of groups of experts accrediting law schools and PhD programs in Estonia (2006, 2008 and 2018) and of another group of experts assessing the organisation of teaching in Helsinki University (2008). In 2013 he served on an assessment committee evaluating the reserach structure of Leiden Law School. In 2014 he served as vice-chair of the national Dutch committee assessing the quality of the courts in The Netherlands, a four yearly exercise, and he was a member of a Committee evaluating the Research conducted in Estonian law schools. In 2015 he chaired an assessment committee, evaluating law master programs in Moldova.