Leonard Besselink holds the chair of Constitutional Law in the Faculty Law since 2012, is affilliated to the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance, ACELG, and is presently Head of the department of Public Law. Prior to that he held the chair of European Constitutional Law at the University of Utrecht.
He was Henri G. Schermers Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies(2011-2012), the Royal Committee on the Constitution (2009-2010) and is a member of the Royal Netherlands Society of Sciences and Humanities.
He studied at various universities, among which the University of Leiden, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the European University Institute where he obtained a doctorate in social and political sciences.
His research focuses on issues of European, comparative and national constitutional law. In particular the constitutional nexus between EU and national constitutional law is one of his main research themes as well as issues of fundamental rights protection in Europe.
For a cv, key publications and full list of publications (with links to digital versions in the UvA repository) see the other tabs on this page.
Leonard F.M. Besselink
e-mail: l.besselink AT uva.nl
work: +31 20 525 3966/3451
Career
Visiting professorship/ fellowships
Teaching experience
PhD Supervision
Publications
Keynote Speeches, invited lectures (selection for the last few years)
2015
2014
2013
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Contract Research
Leonard F.M. Besselink
A Composite European Constitution/ Een samengestelde Europese constitutie. [Inaugural Address Jean Monnet Chair European Constitutional Law, University of Utrecht, 10 January 2007.] Groningen, Europa Law Publishing, 2007, 22 + 22 pp., see
https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/16598551/oratie_UU_Scan_Besselink_Leonard_15_18_05_09_2017.pdf
The Notion and Nature of the European Constitution after the Lisbon Treaty. In: European Constitutionalism beyond Lisbon, Jan Wouters (ed.), Luc Verhey (ed.), Philipp Kiiver (ed.), Uitgeverij Intersentia, 2009, pp. 261-281.
[With Monica Claes, Šejla Imamović, Jan Herman Reestman] National Constitutional Avenues for Further EU Integration, Study, European Parliament, Directorate General for Internal Policies, Policy Department C: Citizens' Rights And Constitutional Affairs, Legal Affairs Committee, Constitutional Affairs Committee, PE 493.046 EN, Brussels March 2014, 277 pp. [common responsibility for main, synthetic part of the report; responsibility for the chapters on Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, Malta, Bulgaria]
Does EU Law Recognize Legal Limits to Integration? Accommodating diversity and its limits. In: The EU Between 'an Ever Closer Union' and Inalienable Policy Domains of Member States, Herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Thomas Giegerich, LL.M. (Virginia), Oskar Josef Gstrein, LL.M., Sebastian Zeitzmann, LL.M. 2014, 557 S., Broschiert, ISBN 978-3-8487-0995-3 pp. 59-78.
Parameters of Constitutional Development: The Fiscal Compact In Between EU and Member State Constitutions. In: The EU after Lisbon: Amending or Coping with the Existing Treaties? Rossi, Lucia Serena, Casolari, Federico (Eds.) Springer Verlag 2014, X, 334 p. 2 illus., 1 illus. in color, ISBN 978-3-319-04590-0 , pp. 21-35
National and constitutional identity before and after Lisbon, In: 3 Utrecht Law Review (2010), November 2010, pp. 36-49. at http://www.utrechtlawreview.org/
Respecting Constitutional Identity in the EU. A Case Note to ECJ (Second Chamber), Case C 208/09, 22 December 2010, Ilonka Sayn-Wittgenstein v Landeshauptmann von Wien. In: 49 CMLRev (2012) nr 2 pp. 671–693
The Protection of Fundamental Rights Post-Lisbon: The Interaction between the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the European Convention on Human Rights and National Constitutions. Questionnaire and General Report. In: Reports of the XXV FIDE Congress Tallinn 2012, Volume 1: The Protection of Fundamental Rights Post-Lisbon, Tallinn 2012, Tartu University Press. Pp. 1-139.
Parameters of Constitutional Conflict after Melloni. In: European Law Review 2014,39( 4), 531-552.
Should the European Union Ratify the European Convention for Human Rights: Some Remarks on the Relations between the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice. In: Constituting Europe: the European Court of Human Rights in a national, European and global context. Andreas Føllesdal/ Geir Ulfstein/ Birgit Peters (eds.) Cambridge Studies on Human Rights Conventions, Cambridge University Press, ISBN-13: 978110702444, 2013 , pp. 301-333
The European Union and The European Convention On Human Rights: From Sovereign Immunity in Bosphorus to Full Scrutiny under the Reform Treaty? In: Changing Perceptions of Sovereignty and Human Rights: Essays in Honour of Cees Flinterman, Intersentia Antwerpen 2008, pp. 295-309
Multiple Political Identities: Revisiting the ‘Maximum Standard’. In: Citizenship and Solidarity in the European Union – from the Charter of Fundamental Rights to the Crisis, the state of the art. Alessandra Silveira (ed.), [Euroclio Series] Peter Lang, (Bern/Bruxelles) 2013.
Entrapped by the Maximum Standard. On Fundamental Rights, Pluralism, Subsidiarity in the European Union. In: Common Market Law Review, vol 35 (1998), no. 3, pp 629-680
Grenzen aan grenzenloosheid - algemene leerstukken van grondrechtenbescherming en de EU, L.F.M. Besselink en H.R.B.M. Kummeling (red.), WEJ Tjeenk Willink Deventer 1998, XIII + 287 pp.
National Parliaments in the EU’s Composite Constitution: a Plea for a Shift in Paradigm. In: Ph. Kiiver (ed.), National and Regional Parliaments in the European Constitutional Order, Groningen: Europa Law Publishing, 2006. ISBN: 9076871639, pp. 117-131
The Proliferation of Constitutional Law and Constitutional Adjudication, or How American Judicial Review Came to Europe After All. Utrecht Law Review. Volume 9, Issue 2, March 2013, pp. 19-35. http://www.utrechtlawreview.org/index.php/ulr/article/viewFile/223/220
Ius Publicum Europaeum: Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit in den Niederlanden. In: Handbuch IUS PUBLICUM EUROPAEUM, Band VI: Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit, Prof. Dr. Armin von Bogdandy, Prof. Dr. Peter M. Huber (hersg.), C. F. Mueller Verlag, Heidelberg forthcoming, [approx 60 pp]
Constitutional Law of the EU Member States, Leonard Besselink, Paul Bovend’eert, Hansko Broeksteeg, Roel de Lange, Wim Voermans (eds), Kluwer Deventer, 2014, VI + 1765 pp. ISBN 978-90-13-09176-2 [and (co-)author of the chapters on The Italian Republic and on The Kingdom of the Netherlands]
Ius Publicum Europaeum: § 6 Grundstrukturen staatlichen Verfassungsrechts. In: Handbuch IUS PUBLICUM EUROPAEUM, Band I: Nationales Verfassungsrecht, Prof. Dr. Armin von Bogdandy, Prof. Dr. Pedro Cruz Villalón, Prof. Dr. Peter M. Huber (hersg.), C. F. Mueller Verlag, Heidelberg 2007, pp. 327-388
The Constitutional Duty to Promote the Development of the International Legal Order: the Significance and Meaning of Article 90 of the Netherlands Constitution. In: Netherlands Yearbook of International Law, Volume XXXIV, 2003, pp. 89-138
De Nederlandse Grondwet en de Europese Unie. [The Netherlands Constitution and the European Union, with H.R.B.M. Kummeling (Introduction and Chapter 1), R. de Lange (chapter 5 on decentralization), P. Mendelts (draft chapter 3 on parliament) and S. Prechal (Introduction and concluding chapter)] Europa Law Publishing, Groningen 2002. xii + 279 pp. NUR 823; ISBN 90-76871-10-8