Does Law Matter?

Michael G. Faure (LL.M) studied law at the University of Antwerp (licenciate in law 1982) and criminology at the University of Gent (licenciated in criminology 1983). He obtained a Master of Laws from the University of Chicago Law School (1984) and a doctor iuris from the Albert Ludwigs Universität Freiburg im Breisgau. He was first a lecturer and then a senior lecturer at the department of criminal law of the law faculty of Leiden University (1988-1999) and became academic director of the Maastricht European institute for transnational legal research (METRO) and professor of Comparative and International Environmental Law at the law faculty of Maastricht University in September 1991. He still holds both positions today. In addition, he is academic director of the Ius Commune Research School and member of the board of directors of Ectil. Since the first of February 2008, he is half time professor of comparative private law and economics at the Rotterdam Insitute of Law & Economics (RILE) of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and academic director of the European Doctorate in Law and Economics (EDLE) programme. Since 1982 he is equally attorney at the Antwerp Bar. He publishes in the areas of environmental (criminal) law, tort and insurance and economic analysis of (accident) law.

Jan Smits holds the Chair of European Private Law at Maastricht University and is the academic director of the Maastricht European Private Law Institute (MEPLI). After his study of law at the universities of Leiden and Poitiers (1986-1991), he defended his PhD at the University of Leiden (1995), developing a theory of how contractual liability can be best explained. In 1995 and 1996 he taught at the universities of Stellenbosch and Tilburg. He then was appointed at Maastricht University, first (1996-1999) as an associate professor and then (1999) to the newly created Chair of European Private Law (the first chair for this field worldwide). At Maastricht, Jan led the private law research group of the Ius Commune Research School. From 2008 to 2010, he was distinguished professor of European Private Law and Comparative Law at Tilburg University, a post he gave up in late 2010 to return to Maastricht and found the Maastricht European Private Law Institute. He held visiting positions at a number of foreign institutions, including Tulane Law School, Leuven University, the University of Liège, Louisiana State University, the Penn State Dickinson School of Law and the University of Helsinki. From 2010-2012, he held the HiiL Visiting Chair on the Internationalisation of Law and in 2013-2014 the TPR Visiting Chair at the University of Ghent. Jan Smits is an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).