Telephone number:	+31 (0)71 527 7392
E-Mail:	w.t.eijsbouts@law.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department:	Faculteit Rechtsgeleerdheid, Instituut voor Publiekrecht, Europees Recht
Office Address:	Kamerlingh Onnes Gebouw Steenschuur 25 2311 ES Leiden Room number B137

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Academic profile

Tom Eijsbouts was appointed professor of European Law in Leiden as of Nov. 1, 2010. He has been professor of European Constitutional Law and History at the University of Amsterdam since 2000, currently an honorary position. In the University of Amsterdam is the founder and director of the HOGENDORPcentre for European Constitutional Studies, a Jean Monnet centre of excellence, and founding Editor in Chief of the European Constitutional Law Review.

Eijsbouts has written extensively on European Law (including a textbook in Dutch, together with colleagues, now in its third edition), on European constitutional law and history, on legal and political theory and history.

After his reading law in Leiden and law and interntional relations in Geneva (DEA Graduate Institute) and after a career in journalism (including its teaching), in 1986 Eijsbouts was appointed lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities of Amsterdam University and in 2000 was appointed professor of European constitutional law and history in the Law Faculty. He has tought and teaches European law, constitutional law and history, comparative law, philosophy.

A regular contributor to op-ed pages and a columnist of the Dutch Daily Het Financieele Dagblad. he is one of Holland’s participants in public debate on Europe and regularly speaks and teaches in universities abroad. In 2006 at the occasion of the football world cup he wrote a book in Dutch entitled A little philosophy of the ball. It included a critique of the European Court’s ruling on Silvio Berlusconi.He gave a festival lecture on Europe at the Lowlands music festival university of 2007.

Eijsbouts is not averse to unorthodox legal thinking. He is a student and teacher of positive law and doctrine in the classic sense and in legal terms, but also of the contribution of law to the understanding of structural evolution, notably of the European Union’s constitution. History, political and legal theory are then used as ancillary disciplines.

His current legal and constitutional research addresses the complex and multifaceted position of the member states in the European Union. Eijsbouts argues that it helps to see these member states not only individually, as masters of the treaties and of EU law viz. as subject to EU law. When acting together they may be seen as a central institution of the Union, an institution not of law but of fact. The acknowledgement of this institution is, according to him, a key to the understanding of the Union’s evolution.

 

Data

Personal
- Born Maastricht, Dec. 24, 1946; married, one daughter.
- Address: Suikerbakkerssteeg 42,  1012 PW AMSTERDAM

Education/Degrees
- Gymnasium-b Eindhoven, 1965
- LLM University of Leiden,  Faculty of Law, 1969
- Diplôme d’études approfondies Geneva Graduate Institute of International Studies, 1971
- PhD, University of  Leiden, 1989

Career non academic
- Military service 1971-1973
- Journalism until 1986 (De Tijd, De Volkskrant, Binnenlands Bestuur, Free Lance, School of Journalism Utrecht)

Academic appointments
- University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities, European Studies, 1986.
- Founder and director of the Hogendorp Centre for European Constitutional Studies (now a Jean Monnet Centre of excellence), 1996
- Chair Jean Monnet in European Constitutional Law and History, 1997
- Member, Amsterdam Center of International Law, 1998, director of programme.
- Chairman of the board of editors, Legal Issues of Economic  Integration,  2000
- Chair European Constitutional Law, Europa Instituut Universiteit van Amsterdam, 2000
- Chairman, Department of International Law, Universiteit van Amsterdam,  2003-2007
- Founding editor in chief  European Constitutional Law Review, 2004
- Member European Constitutional Law Network (Berlin), 2004
- Fellow, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Florence, 2004-5
- Fellow, Hallstein Institut, Humboldt Universität Berlin, December 2008

Academic Memberships
- European Constitutional Network, Berlin
- Ius Commune Research School
- Hogendorpcentre, University of Amsterdam
- Netherlands Lawyers' Society
- Netherlands Society of European Law
- Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance

Invited guest lectures abroad
- Grenoble
- Strasbourg
- Nijni Novgorod
- Istanbul (Yeditepe)
- Jerusalem
- Madrid,
- Kent
- Salamanca
- Paris XIII

Research Grants
- EU FP VI The New Governance (with Daniela Obradovic)
- NWO replacement grant The New European Constitution

Expertise/teaching
- European Union Law
- Comparative Constitutional Law
- Constitutional History
- Legal and Political Theory.
- Philosophy

Languages
Teaching and writing in Dutch, English and French. Reading also Spanish, Italian, German and Russian.

Hobbies
Writing, literature, music, philosphy, history, ball games, long distance cycling, skating, skiing.