The Benelux Chapter of the International Society of Public Law (ICON•S) is a forum for inter- and cross-disciplinary debate concerning Public Law for Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg), European and other international scholars.
BENELUX
About
The Benelux Chapter of the International Society of Public Law (ICON•S) is a forum for inter- and cross-disciplinary debate concerning Public Law for Benelux, European and other international scholars.
The Benelux Chapter is grounded on the long-standing interconnection between Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg legal systems and their inputs to the creation of supranational and international legal spaces. The Benelux Chapter particularly aims at representing the integrated and pluralistic Benelux scholarly community in Public Law and to exploit its potential and richness in the global academic arena. It favors the integration of the three countries’ legal traditions and supports the dissemination of the core Public Law values. It also promotes approaches capable of contextualizing the new developments in Public Law, integrating legal analysis with insights and methodologies from the social sciences.
These new developments have indeed renewed public attention and require a growing dialogue among scholars of different disciplines for disseminating knowledge in the society. Therefore, in accordance with the ICON•S mission, the Benelux chapter fosters cross-fertilization between the different branches of Public Law, and especially between Constitutional, Administrative, Comparative, Criminal, European, International law, and Legal Theory.
The Benelux Chapter aims at offering a space for scholars to deepen their involvement in the Public Law debates taking place on a global scale. This approach aims to foster the sense of community between junior and senior scholars from different backgrounds and diverse points of view. In this spirit, the Benelux Chapter seeks to bring together all those with interests in Public Law to explore the present challenges and to take part in a new vibrant academic community.
The Benelux Chapter is founded on an intergenerational working space that will include both established scholars and junior academics. It will seek to provide an academic forum for scholars of different fields and coming from different backgrounds. It will serve as a link between the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg academic communities and the international forum that ICON•S offers.
Chapter Mission
The aim of the Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg Chapter (hereinafter ‘ICON•S Benelux’) is to work with ICON•S and to pursue the mission of ICON•S across Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg in order to:
- Promote the fundamental constitutional values of democracy, equality, justice and human rights and their realization in the Benelux context. The concept of equality will be broadly interpreted and will include gender, sexual orientation, age, race, ethnicity, politics, religion, place of residence and philosophical orientation, among others.
- Promote the values of ICON•S, and in particular the commitment to an interdisciplinary approach to public law that engages constitutional, administrative, and international law scholars, political scientists and practitioners so as better to understand global and transnational legal developments;
- Promote the training and commitment of young academics from the Benelux, within the framework of the ICON•S goals and objectives;
- Encourage the engagement of junior scholars and foster the development of regional and transnational collaborative research projects;
- Complement and work cooperatively with, but remain distinct from, existing national and regional organizations;
- Promote intellectual exchange and cooperation among public law scholars in the Benelux, as well as with the judiciary and the legal profession.
Chapter Duties
The Chapter shall:
- Be organized in a way that reflects ICON•S’s commitments to transparency, accountability and good governance, as well as to gender equality and diversity in governance;
- Regularly disseminate notice of their events and activities via ICONnect;
- Communicate an annual summary of their activities to the ICON•S Executive Committee and such information shall, where appropriate, be featured on the ICON•S website; and.
- Encourage all members of the Chapter to: a) Participate in the activities of the Chapter on a regular basis. b) Join ICON•S and pay the ICON•S annual membership fee. c) Promote the mission and values of ICON•S.
Chapter Governance
Co-Chairs
Mariolina Eliantonio (Maastricht University)
Emmanuel Slautsky (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Chapter Manager
Franco Peirone (Maastricht University)
Steering Committee
Christian Behrendt (Université de Liège)
Mariolina Eliantonio (Maastricht University)
Jurgen Goossens (Utrecht University)
Herwig Hofmann (University of Luxembourg)
Ingrid Leijten (Tilburg University)
Patricia Popelier (Antwerp University)
Emmanuel Slautsky (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Young Scholar Research Forum Co-Chairs
Justine Richelle (Maastricht University)
Norman Vander Putten (UCLouvain Saint-Louis)
Advisory Committee
Frédéric Bouhon (Université de Liège)
Anne-Emmanuelle Bourgaux (University of Mons)
Paul Dermine (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Cedric Jenart (University of Antwerp)
Yuliya Kaspiarovich (University of Groningen)
Jasper Krommendijk (Radboud University)
Mathieu Leloup (Tilburg University)
Joana Mendes (University of Luxembourg)
Toon Moonen (Ghent University)
Elise Muir (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
Reijer Passchier (Open University)
René Repasi (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Céline Romainville (Université Catholique de Louvain)
Joost Sillen (Maastricht University)
Lieneke Slingenberg (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Jerfi Uzman (University of Amsterdam)
Steven Van Garsse (University of Hasselt)
Eva Van Vugt (Utrecht University)
Wim Voermans (Universiteit Leiden)
Jogchum Vrielink (Université Saint-Louis)
Stéphanie Wattier (Namur University)
Aube Wirtgen (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Upcoming Chapter Events and Activities
The ICON-S Benelux Chapter will organize its second conference on 22-23 May 2025. The conference will take place in Bruxelles (BE), hosted by the Université libre de Bruxelles – Faculty of Law and Criminology, with a fully in-person program of panels and keynote sessions. The overarching theme of the conference is Public Law in an Age of Contestation and Systemic Change.
The Call for Papers can be seen here.
Past Chapter Events and Activities
The ICON-S Benelux Inaugural Conference on “Crisis, Challenges, and the Future of Public Law” took place in Maastricht (NL), hosted by Maastricht University – Faculty of Law on October 26-27, 2023.
Conference Organizing Committee: Leticia Díez Sánchez, Mariolina Eliantonio, Valentina Golunova, Franco Peirone, Emmanuel Slautsky, Marijn Van der Sluis.
The conference program can be seen here.
Call(s) For Papers
The Call for Papers is currently open. View all relevant information here
How to Become Involved With Our Chapter
To join the Benelux chapter or for questions related to its events, please write to Franco Peirone (franco.peirone@maastrichtuniversity.nl)
