Quality & Impact

International trade and investment are of considerable economic and political importance for Europe. The EU is negotiating trade agreements globally, involving the abolition of tariffs, the reduction of non-tariff barriers and the introduction of dispute settlement mechanisms. However, the example of the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the USA has shown the challenges of EU trade policy.

The objective of EUTIP is to foster interdisciplinary research into the evolving international trade policy of the European Union (EU) with a view to create a significantly increased European knowledge base and research capacity on EU law and policy of the regulation of international trade through free trade agreements.

For more information, please visit the EUTIP website.

'Informed Choices in Cross-Border Enforcement' (IC2BE) is an international research project on Cross-Border Litigation in the European Union. The project started on 1 January 2018 and is a follow-up of the successful EUPILLAR project (2014-2016). The project is financed by the EU under the Civil Justice Programme 2014-2020 and has been completed in December 2019.

The project was conducted by a consortium coordinated by the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, the other members of the consortium being the Max-Planck-Institute Luxembourg, the University of Antwerp, the University of Madrid (Complutense), the University of Milan, the University of Rotterdam, and the University of Wroclaw.

The project examined the functioning of the rules and practices governing the cross-border enforcement of civil judgments in Europe. Its overall objective is the further development of the judicial cooperation in civil matters, which forms part of the objectives of the Civil Justice Programme 2014-2020. To that end, the IC2BE project screened the regulatory civil justice framework of the EU and the relevant case-law of national courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in matters of cross-border enforcement of judgments. The findings of the project partners have been included in a free access database free access database on national and European case law.

For more information, please visit the IC2BE website.

The project will explore the tax policy implications in case the Dutch Caribbean Islands would opt to become an Outermost Region (OR). The research will include establishing the territorial scope of application of EU law, examine the application of EU State aid law and its enforcement in tax matters, present an overview of the legal possibilities of EU to influence tax law – all with regard to these territories. Moreover, the research will discuss the possible effect of Brexit for the OCTs, inclusion, sustainability and cohesion policy in the EU and how it will influence the OCTs and ORs, the future of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement, the EU funding and the future EU-OCT Partnership. Research outcomes will be exchanged with policy stakeholders and practitioners and published before a broad audience at an International Conference in Curacao and several open access publications will be initiated.

For more information on the project, please click here.

Doctor and lawyers dealing with death and dying is a collaborative research project between the Erasmus School of Law and the Public Health department of the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. The aim is to combine empirical research with the expertise of criminal law to better understand, regulate, and control end-of-life decision-making in health care and (criminal) law.

The Netherlands is one of the few countries in the world with a legal provision to allow physicians to provide their patients with assistance in dying. Having such regulation, however, has not ended the societal debate about the role of physicians in death and dying. Complicated ethical and legal problems remain for many patient groups, such as children between 1-12 years old, psychiatric patients, individuals who are tired of life, and patients with dementia. Also, there is a debate about whether or not the act of assistance in dying should be limited to physicians.

The project focuses on the societal, ethical and legal issues in end-of-life decision-making at the perimeters of the euthanasia law. 

INFAR is a collaborative research project between Erasmus School of Law and the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS). The project is dedicated to pursuing high quality research on the rule of law and human rights in an interdisciplinary framework and fostering collaboration between researchers at Erasmus University and beyond. The collaborative research project is dedicated to pursuing high quality research on the rule of law and human rights in an interdisciplinary framework and fostering collaboration between researchers at Erasmus University Rotterdam and beyond. The project comprises three research themes: the theory of rule in law in context, value clashes in a globalised context, and public and private actors.

This project focuses on the processes of depoliticization in regulatory infrastructures. It does so by mapping the sites of technocratic governance and depoliticization embedded in the future TTIP and/or CETA regime complex and, contextually, to identify existing and potential space for repoliticization. 

The overall goal of this program is to analyse from a multidisciplinary, international comparative perspective the alleged shift in the allocation of responsibilities from public to private actors as far as the control of work-related risks is concerned and to derive policy implications from these insights that can facilitate employees better to strengthen their labour market position. The project entails collaboration between BACT and the Sociology department of Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences. 

The aim of the programme is to explicate what expectations related to human behaviour are embedded in legal instruments, in what ways these expectations are met or not met, and how behavioural insights can be incorporated in ameliorating legal instruments. The overarching research question of the programme is how individual and/or group behaviour is affected by legal rules. The legal rules can pertain to contract and tort, as well as combined public and private legal instruments. The central research question is addressed through different legal and behavioural approaches, primarily focusing on empirical and policy-relevant research. Some of the behavioural approaches aim to test the tenability of presumptions of human behaviour underlying legal instruments. Other behavioural approaches use assumptions on human behaviour in order to predict how parties behave in legal settings. The methodological approach of the research programme is interdisciplinary, and the research team includes legal scholars specialising in contract, tort, property and corporate law, and civil procedure, as well as scholars specialising in law and economics, and sociology or psychology of law. 

The interdisciplinary BACT-programme which has been successfully run since 2008 came to an end in 2021. The new interdisciplinary research environment of Erasmus School of Law consists of the ‘Erasmus Centre of Empirical Legal Studies’ and the research programme ‘Rebalancing Public & Private Interests’ same as the research initiative ‘Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity’.

This research programme is the framework for the cooperation of Erasmus School of Law scholars in constitutional and administrative law, criminal law, international law and European law, jurisprudence, and legal philosophy. The programme is focused on problems of the rule of law as the common theme.

Safety and security are central issues in modern society. This programme aims to study various modes of governance of safety and security in financial, social, and economic systems through a broad and multidisciplinary approach. 

More information on our MSS Programme.

Lex Mercatoria: globalising business law in the 21st century focuses on the effects of internationalisation and globalisation on corporate law. The objective of the research programme is to contribute to an optimal Dutch, European and international company law. 

Globalisation and increased mobility have the effect that countries are less free, less autonomous than before when designing their tax system. The central question of this research programme is: Which external influences are there right now, have been in the past or might become relevant in the future on current tax law? And to which consequences has this led or will lead?

More information about our FA Programme is available in Dutch only.