Prof. dr. W.J.M. (Wim) Voermans

Functie:
  • Hoogleraar Staats- en bestuursrecht/Professor of Constitutional and Administrative law
Expertise:
  • Staatsrecht/Constitutional law
  • Europees constitutioneel recht/European Constitutional law
  • Grondwet/Dutch Constitution
  • (Europese) Wetgevingsleer/(European) Legislative Studies
  • Decentralisatie


Telefoon: +31 (0)71 527 7718
E-Mail: w.j.m.voermans@law.leidenuniv.nl
Faculteit / Onderdeel: Faculteit Rechtsgeleerdheid, Instituut voor Publiekrecht, Staats- en Bestuursrecht
Werkadres: Kamerlingh Onnes Gebouw
Steenschuur 25
2311 ES Leiden
Kamernummer B103
Persoonlijke Homepage: www.wimvoermans.nl

English
Professor of Constitutional and Administrative law at Leiden University and Director of the Institute of Public Law of the Leiden Law School. Voermans current research focuses on Dutch and European constitutional law, with a particular interest in the Dutch and European legislature. Focal points in his recent research are: quality of EC legislation, impact assessment, legislative procedures (with a special interest in (European) Parliament), transparency, institutional balance, decentralization, deregulation, simplification, red tape reduction, transposition and implementation of EU legislation, compliance and enforcement, drafting techniques, and legislative evaluation). Voermans is one of the three directors of the Leiden Research Profile "Political Legitimacy".

Dutch
Hoogleraar Staats- en bestuursrecht bij de Afdeling staats- en bestuursrecht van de Faculteit rechtsgeleerdheid van de Universiteit Leiden en wetenschappelijk directeur van het Instituut Publiekrecht. Zijn huidige onderwijs en onderzoek richten zich zowel op het nationale staatsrecht, als het Europese constitutionele recht. Daarbinnen ligt het accent op (Europese) wetgevingsvraagstukken (kwaliteit van EU-wetgeving, deregulering, vereenvoudiging en terugdringen van administratieve lasten, wetgevingsprocedures (met name de rol van het (Europees) parlement), openbaarheid en transparantie, de relaties tussen de wetgevende instellingen, decentralisatie, omzetting en uitvoering van EG-wetgeving, naleving, toezicht en handhaving, wetgevingtechniek en wetsevaluatie). Voermans is één van de drie trekkers van het Leidse Profileringsgebied "Political Legitimacy".



Wim Voermans, privé webpagina/Wim Voermans, personal web page  

Wim voermans' weblog

A. Curriculum Vitae

Professional Career
Wim Voermans (Zundert 1961) graduated from the Faculty of Law at  Tilburg University in 1987. Between 1989 and 2002 he was assigned there at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law. First as an assistant professor/ lecturer and from 1997 onward as a senior lecturer/associate professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law. 

 
In September 2002 Voermans was appointed to the chair of Constitutional and Administrative Law at the department of Public Law at Leiden University. He chaired the section of Administrative and Constitutional between 2003 and 2005 until he became a member of the board of the Leiden Law Faculty and the Director of the Faculty’s Research Institute (the E.M. Meijers Institute for Legal Studies) (2005-2007).


Additional functions

  • Vice-president of the International Association for Legislation (IAL)  
  • Programme directors (Legislative Method and Drafting) of the Dutch Academy for Legislation
  • Chairman of the Thorbecke and Bachienestichting (a century old foundation which awards academic prizes in the field of constitutional law, political science and life sciences)
  • Chairman of the editiorial board of Prakke/Kortmann Constitutional Law of the EU Member States
  • Member of the advisory board on municipal law of the Dutch Association of Municipalities (former president 2007-2008).
  • President of the Leiden Law Faculty alumni association ((VVJF)
  • Member of the Dutch platform ICT and Research (Surf).
  • Member of the advisory board of Legal Intelligence.
  • Member of the Advisory Board of the Dutch Elections Board (Research department)
  • Member of the advisory board Legis of the Ministry of Justice (IT assisted lifecycle management of legislation)
  • Fellow of the Montesquieu Institute (the Hague)


    Voermans is on the editorial board of several book series and  recollection of Dutch Legislation.          

B. Field of research expertise

Wim Voermans' current field of research expertise is in constitutional law (comparative/European) and legislative studies. Formerly he used to work in the field legimatics (computer-assistance for legislative drafting and ICT support for legislative processes) Leda-project 1990-1995 (PhD-project).

Legislative studies
Voermans' research focuses on legislative studies (see archive of publications 1990-2003 and the tab publications). This research involves a host of topics running from the drafting stages of legislation up to the enactment implementation enforcement, and evaluation thereof. Most of the research in period 1992-2003 focused on practical problems of legislation and involved hands-on research. More and more the interaction between EU- and national legislation came to the fore after 1995.
Constitutional Law- comparative studies
The Constitutional Law research project are mainly comparative in nature. Voermans studied the phenomenon of Councils for the Judiciary in different European Countries, the way different EU Member States implement EC Directives, the regime on access to information in the EU, the way EU Member States deal with codification and consolidation, the way preambles are used (and the effects they have), constitutional reserves, etc.
This ties in well with the research of the Leiden Law Faculty team of working on the project Trias Europea, led by Voermans. In this project the group is studying shifts in the relative balance of state powers and institutions within the European Union. Is the balance between the executive, legislator and judiciary affected by the gradually progressing constitutionalization of the Union? How is constitutional law forged in the EU? What are the effects of this process and is a new balance warranted?
These are some of the research questions in the project Trias Europea, one of five projects in the research programme (2003-2010). 

European projects
In 2004-2006 Mommers and Voermans worked on the LOIS-programme (Lexal Ontologies for Legal Information Sharing). In this EU-funded research programme (FP 6) different institutes in Europe( Italy, UK, Netherlands, Austria, and Czech Republic) are trying to develop an intelligent thesaurus which enable to find and compare different but equivalent legal concepts in legislation of EU-member states. Ensuingly (2007- 2008) the team worked on the follow-up project (FP 7): DrAfting Legislation with Ontology-based Support (DALOS).

C. Conference contributions 2009/2010

2010      

2009
  • London, 14 januari 2009, Conferentie Governing the Regulatory State. georganiseerd door het Economic and Social Research Council en University of Exeter, The future of regulatory governance
  • Vilnius Litouwen 12 maart 2009 Conferentie Mykolas Romeris Universiteit over ‘Interpretation of Laws; contemporary issues’, Interpreting EU Directives: The Interplay between Judge & Legislator
  • Warschau (Polen) 24 en 25 Maart 2009, Natolin Campus College of Europe, 3rd Symposium on the Internal Market, session IV Internal market and political legitimacy, The composite European Legislature after the Lisbon Treaty
  • Antwerpen 27 maart 2009, Universiteit van Antwerpen, Seminar on the protection of Human Rights in the Interaction between the European Courts, Conclusions
  • Leiden 9 april 2009, Lezingenreeks Studium Generale ‘Buitenlands beleid belicht; een serie lezingen van het Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken,’ Academiegebouw  (samen met Staatssecretaris Frans Timmermans), Nederland in een ander Europa, Europa anders in Nederland
  • Groningen 3 juni, Towards a European APA?, Real Law Research Forum ( organized by the Review of European Administrative Law), samen met Anne Meuwese en Ymre Schuurmans
  • Den Haag, 3 juni Implementatie van EU-handhavingsvoorschriften , Studiemiddag Handhaving van EU wet- en regelgeving in de praktijk; een gezamenlijk initiatief van de Werkgroep Europa van de Inspectieraad en de Algemene Rekenkamer
  • Paramaribo (Suriname) 22-26 Juni, Wetgeven in Suriname
  • Ankara (Turkije) 30 June-1 July Implementing and transposing the EU’s acquis in civil law countries, Workshop on Building Capacities for Legislative Drafting in Turkey organised by the Office of the Prime Minister and SIGMA (a joint initiative of the OECD and the European Commission, principally funded by the European Commission)
  • Den Haag, 7 september, Instituut Clingendael, Expertsymposium ‘Subsidiariteit vanuit Europees en nationaal perspectief’ Instemmingsrecht en behandelvoorbehoud nieuwe stijl
  • Kazachstan programme (The Hague) 3 September – Law Making Processes in and outside the EU. Training programme for Kazachstan officials organized by the Asser Institute
  • Stockholm, Sweden, Codification & Consolidation as Means to Untie Red Tape, IRRC (International Regulatory Reform Conference) Stockholm 12 November 2009
  • Frankfurt, Germany, December 7-8, Drafting course for the European Central Bank
  • Tbilisi, Georgia workshop ‘Different Approaches to Legislative Drafting in EU Member states’ December 14-16, SIGMA (a joint initiative of the OECD and the European Commission, principally funded by the European Commission)  

D. Teaching and teaching experience

Voermans teaches legislative studies and legislative theory, methods and processes and legislative drafting  in many different settings. First of all he has taught legislative drafting for more than 18 years in a post-academic course Legislative Method and Drafting. This six day course, organized two times a year on average, is set-up to allow professional legislative draftsmen from Dutch ministerial departments to train and perfect their drafting skills. In each course 16 experienced and less experienced draftsmen participate. The course, based on the principle of learning by doing, has also been organized for the Dutch Parliament. Voermans also teaches legislative drafting in in-company courses and – ever since - classes for the  Dutch Academy for Legislation (especially on topics related to European Legislative studies). He is one of the programme directors there.

International teaching experience
European Parliament: In 2001-2005 Voermans, Konijnenbelt and Brouwer taught an in company course in Legislative drafting for the European Parliament. The course ('The Art of Co-legislation') was offered both in the English and French language. Between 2001 and 2005 some 25 editions of the two-day course were organized. 10 Persons on average attended each course.
The course welcomed staff of the European Parliaments and assistants of MEPs as well as participants from the European Commission, European Council, the European ombudsman and the Audit Chamber. In June 2004 a conference ‘Drafting for a better Union' was organized in Brussels as a sort of master class for the alumni of the course.
Under the auspices of the Council of Europe Drafting training courses have been provided for Latvia, Russia, Serbia, Kosovo and Moldova. Voermans taught legislative method and drafting in the courses of the International  Institute for legislative drafting of Tulane University in New Orleans USA and in Ottawa, Canada for the ICIAJ. From November 2008 onward a two day course in Legislative Drafting (methods and techniques) will be organized for the European Central Bank. Voermans lectured on different occasions for the legal services of the European Commission, Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.


E. Links (Relevante links):

International Association for legislation

Montesquieu instituut

Academie voor Wetgeving/EALL

Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek en documentatiecentrum  

F. Archive of publications;overview 1989-2003 (Archief; overzicht 1989-2003)

Webredactie Rechtsgeleerdheid
Laatst Gewijzigd: 16-08-2011