Biography
I joined the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), which is the Hague Campus of Erasmus University Rotterdam in February 2007. Among my external academic appointments, I have been affiliated as a visiting scholar with the School of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand since January 2007, an Editor (since 2013) of the South African Journal on Human Rights (from Feb 2017- Feb 2019 Editor-in-Chief), a visiting research fellow in the Department of Sociology at Princeton University in 2017, a member of the teaching staff for the MSc in Law and Society at Leiden University from 2020-2023 and as a Fellow and co-ordinator of a Theme Group at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciencies (NIAS) of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in the 2020/21 Academic Year.
I studied law in England (1992: LLB, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and 1994: LLM, with Merit, School of Oriental and African Studies, London) and was called to the English bar in 1995. After fifteen years as a legal and human rights practitioner, mainly in South Africa and The Netherlands, in 2009 I obtained a PhD in the sociology of law at Utrecht University with a thesis on Advocating for Accountability: Civic-State Interactions to Protect Refugees in South Africa, which was published by Intersentia (Antwerp).
As a practitioner, was assistant to a British Member of Parliament (on miscarriages of justice), legal advisor for the Dutch Refugee Council, held various functions for the South African organisation Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and from 2000-2007 was director of Rea Hamba Advice, an international legal practice based in The Hague.
As a researcher, since 1999, I have published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters as well as a monograph, edited books and special issues. My current academic research assesses the potential for legal mobilization to lead to progressive structural change.
In 2005, I received an NWO-WOTRO award to support field research in South Africa from the Dutch National Science Foundation (NWO). Moreover, I participated in a two-year programme funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a two-year research and capacity-building programme funded by Hivos and a teaching project in Suriname. In a project led by Sanne Taekema the Erasmus School of Law we were awarded a five-year (2015-2020) matching grant from the Erasmus Trust Fonds amounting to a total of 1.8 million euros. In addition to the NIAS-KNAW fellowship (2020-21), I have been awarded several Erasmus+ Mobility and other grants.
In 2021, I formed a Consortium involving numerous universities and societal organizations and co-founded the Legal Mobilization Platform.
International Institute of Social Studies
- handmaker@iss.nl
- Room
- I3-10
- Location
- Kortenaerkade 12, 's - Gravenhage
More information
Work
- Xander Creed & Jeff Handmaker (2023) - Protection from refuge: From refugee rights to migration management. By Kate Ogg.: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. 215 pp. $110.00 hardcover - Law & Society Review - doi: 10.1111/lasr.12656
- Jeff Handmaker & Wim Scholten (2023) - Pak antisemitisme aan als vorm van discriminatie en racisme: Nationaal Coördinator Antisemitismebestrijding staat échte bestrijding van antisemitisme in de weg - Beleid & Maatschappij, 14 (2), 133 - doi: : 10.5553/BenM/138900692023050002010 - [link]
- Willem Scholten, Jeff Handmaker, Adri Nieuwhof & Jaap Hamburger (2023) - Aanpak Nationaal Coördinator Antisemitismebestrijding werkt averechts - [link]
- Jeff Handmaker & Sanne Taekema (2023) - O Lungo Drom: Legal Mobilization as Counterpower - Journal of Human Rights Practice, 15 (1), 6-23 - doi: 10.1093/jhuman/huac053/7055844?login=false
- Jeff Handmaker (2023) - Introduction to the legal mobilization special focus - Journal of Human Rights Practice, 15 (1), 1-65 - doi: 10.1093/jhuman/huac068 - [link]
- Jeff Handmaker (2022) - Foreword [to: Promoting Efficiency in Jurisprudence and Constitutional Development in Africa] - [link]
- Jeff Handmaker & Caroline Nalule (2022) - From Control to Deterrence: Assessing Border Enforcement in South Africa - doi: 10.1017/9781009047661.003
- Jeff Handmaker & Eva Rieter (2022) - Racial justice is about redressing systemic injustice - [link]
- Jeff Handmaker (2022) - Opinion – The Silencing of Amnesty International’s Report on Israeli Apartheid - [link]
- Jeff Handmaker (2022) - Translating food sovereignty: cultivating justice in an age of transnational governance - The Journal of Peasant Studies - doi: 10.1080/03066150.2022.2137624
- Jeff Handmaker (22 september 2023) - Flatbrand toont zware lot migranten
- Jeff Handmaker (23 juni 2022) - Juristen organisatie vraagt president om geen ambassade te openen in Jeruzalem
- JD (Jeff) Handmaker (20 november 2021) - Arrest at rally against Covid-19 restrictions
- Jeff Handmaker (15 januari 2020) - Rechtstaat dient gerespecteerd te worden
- Jeff Handmaker (31 januari 2018) - Trumps State of the Union: open hand en gesloten vuist
- Jeff Handmaker (26 oktober 2016) - Africa Today on Withdrawal from ICC with Achike Chiude and Jeff Handmaker
- Jeff Handmaker (1 april 2016) - Israel voelt zichzelf steeds meer in de nauw gedreven door de zogehete boycot beweging
- Jeff Handmaker (17 januari 2015) - Were war crimes commited in Palestine?
- Jeff Handmaker (28 januari 2013) - Interview of Dr. Jeff Handmaker, senior lecturer, ISS on the military trial in Suriname
- Jeff Handmaker (11 mei 2012) - Juristen Bezorgd over Suriname
- Jeff Handmaker & Sanne Taekema (2021) - Legal Mobilization as Counterpower
- JD (Jeff) Handmaker (2021) - South African Journal on Human Rights (Journal)
- Jeff Handmaker (2019) - International Journal of Refugee Law (Journal)
- G Bisharat, Jeff Handmaker, G Karmi & A Tartir (2018) - Global Jurist (Journal)
- Jeff Handmaker (2017) - South African Journal on Human Rights (Journal)
- Jeff Handmaker (2017) - South African Journal on Human Rights (Journal)
- Jeff Handmaker (2016) - Legal mobilisation als analytisch kader voor de betrokkenheid van bedrijven bij mensenrechtenschendingen in de Palestijnse gebieden
- Jeff Handmaker (2015) - Legal mobilisation as a lens for law and development studies
- Jeff Handmaker (2015) - The ‘Promise and Pathos’ of Legal Mobilization: Perspectives on Palestine
- Jeff Handmaker (2015) - Legal Mobilization and the Potential for Transformative Change Through the South African Judiciary
Member of International Lawyers
- Start date approval
- december 2019
- End date approval
- december 9999
- Place
- GENEVA
Leiden University
- Start date approval
- november 2020
- End date approval
- december 9999
- Place
- LEIDEN
- Description
- Adjunct Lecturer
University of the Witwatersrand School of Law
- Start date approval
- mei 2022
- End date approval
- december 9999
- Place
- JOHANNESBURG
- Description
- PhD Supervision; Administration of joint PhD progr
General Information
- Year
- 2023
- Course Code
- ISSGENERAL-23-24
4216 Human Rights, Law and Society
- Year
- 2023
- Course Code
- ISS-4216-23-24
4153 Cont Perspectives on Social Justice
- Year
- 2023
- Course Code
- ISS-4153-23-24
Board of Examiners
- Year
- 2023
- Course Code
- ISS-BOE-23-24
Master track GMD
- Year
- 2023
- Course Code
- ISS-GMD-23-24
Major SJP
- Year
- 2023
- Course Code
- ISS-SJP-23-24
5401 Research Paper
- Year
- 2023
- Course Code
- ISS-5401-23-24
4352 Mobilizing Rights, Social Justice
- Year
- 2023
- Course Code
- ISS-4352-23-24
3105 Research Paper Preparation
- Year
- 2023
- Course Code
- ISS-3105-23-24
Major SJP
- Year
- 2023
- Course Code
- ISS-SJP-22-23
Master track GMD
- Year
- 2023
- Course Code
- ISS-GMD-22-23