Jan Smits
Name: Jan M. Smits
Gender: Male
Age: 44
Place of residence: Liège
Nationality: Netherlands
Maastricht University:
Professor of European Private Law, Maastricht European Private Law Institute (M-EPLI)
University of Helsinki:
Research Professor of Comparative Legal Studies
Smits at SSRN
Smits at Bepress
Smits at Maastricht University
Smits at the University of Helsinki
Postal address:
Prof. dr Jan M. Smits
Faculty of Law
Maastricht University
P.O. Box 616
NL-6200 MD Maastricht
The Netherlands
jan.smits [at] maastrichtuniversity.nl
Address for visitors:
Oud Gouvernement
Faculty of Law
Bouillonstraat 1-3
6211 LH Maastricht
Jan Smits holds the Chair of European Private Law at Maastricht University and is the academic director of the Maastricht European Private Law Institute (M-EPLI). He is also research professor of Comparative Legal Studies in the University of Helsinki. After his study of law at the universities of Leiden and Poitiers (1986-1991), Jan Smits defended his PhD at the University of Leiden (1995), developing a theory of how contractual liability can best be 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 Chair of European Private Law (the first chair for this field worldwide). At Maastricht, Jan Smits 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 and the Penn State Dickinson School of Law. In 2010-2011, he holds the UM-HIIL Visiting Chair on the Internationalisation of Law.
Jan Smits is an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
Research interests: European private law, Comparative law, Legal theory, ‘Law and...’ approaches.
For more details, check out the List of Publications (usually with a link to the full text) and the list of Invited Lectures. A full curriculum vitae is available at the site of Bepress.
Jan Smits is a fierce believer in legal science as an international discipline. Besides teaching students and working with a research group of highly committed PhD-researchers and other colleagues, he views the writing of academic papers and books as the most challenging and rewarding activity in his scholarly life. His view on the importance of academic legal debate can be found in an interview with Maastricht University’s weekly. Smits is known for his critical view of the European harmonisation process. With the new Maastricht European Private Law Institute (M-EPLI), he intends to create an international and inspiring academic environment and an instrument to cross the traditional borders among different fields of law.
