Prof Dr Geert VAN CALSTER, LL.M., Ph.D.
Short biography:
Blog at gavclaw.com
An alumnus of the College of Europe, Bruges (promotion Stefan Zweig), Prof Van Calster is the Head of Leuven Law's department of European and international law.
Geert is director of the Centre for Advanced Legal Studies at Leuven and a senior fellow at Leuven's Centre for Global Governance Studies.
Geert is a visiting professor at Monash University (Melbourne) and at the China-EU School of Law in Beijing, and a visiting lecturer at King's College, London. He was previously i.a. a visiting lecturer at Oxford University. He was called to the Bar in 1999 after having worked as of counsel to a City law firm since 1995, and practices with DLA Piper.
Finally Geert is on the board of Academische Stichting Leuven, an academic charity.
Prospective PhD students: prof Van Calster has capacity for PhD supervision in the areas indicated under current research interest. Please refer to the faculty's PhD research pages
Recent presentations and publications (for full list, please refer to the CV above):
Sample of recent presentations
15 March 2012
‘Arbitration, obviously. Or is it?’, Hanenburg-Yntema Fonds, Leuven;
8 March 2012
‘Extraterritorialiteit in EU IPR’, VRG-Alumni, Leuven (Extraterritoriality in EU private international law);
6 October 2011
‘IPR in een online context’, studiedag Recht en Elektronische Handel, Brussel, 6 oktober 2011; [Private international law and the internet];
18 May 2011
'The future of nuclear energy after Fukushima', SKILIO seminar;
18 March 2011
‘Torpedo’s, aliens en genocide: Belgisch, Europees en International IPR revisited’, VRG-Alumni, Leuven (with Marianne Verhulst) [Recent developments in Private International Law];
18 March 2011
'The regulation of nanotechnologies in the EU’, Workshop on the governance of nanotechnologies in Belgian and European contexts, Université Catholique de Louvain;
8 December 2010
‘Fair Competition Versus Fair Trade? Regulating processing and production methods in the EU and WTO, VU University, Amsterdam, Department of Transnational Legal Studies;
Sample of recent publications
Peer-reviewed articles in international journals
D. BOWMAN, G. VAN CALSTER, and S. FRIEDRICHS, 'Nanomaterials and regulation of cosmetics', Nature Nanotechnology, 2010, Vol.5, issue 2, 92;
B. DORBECK-JUNG, D. BOWMAN, G. VAN CALSTER, ‘Governing nanomedicine: Lessons from within, and for, the EU Medical Technology regulatory framework’, Law and Policy, Vol.33, No.2, April 2011, 215-224;
J. D’SILVA and G. VAN CALSTER, ‘For Me to Know and You to Find Out? Participatory Mechanisms, The Aarhus Convention and New Technologies,’ Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology, (2010), Vol. 4 : Iss. 2, 1-34 (Article 3), Available at: http://www.bepress.com/selt/vol4/iss2/art3;
D. BOWMAN, G. VAN CALSTER, and J. D’SILVA, ‘Defining nanomaterials for the purpose of regulation within the European Union’, European Journal of Risk Regulation, 2010, 115-122;;
G. VAN CALSTER, 'An overview of regulatory innovation in the European Union', Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies, eds. Catherine Barnard and Okeoghene Odudu, Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2009, 289-321;
Chapters in books
W. VANDENBERGHE, G. VAN CALSTER, 'Cartel enforcement - Belgium', in M. REES (ed.), Cartel enforcement worldwide, London, Cameron May, 2011, 35-67;
G. VAN CALSTER, M. VERHULST, ‘Recente ontwikkelingen in het Europese IPR’, in Recht in Beweging, 18de VRG Alumni-dag, Antwerpen, Maklu, 2011, 93-119; [Recent developments in European Private International Law]
G. VAN CALSTER, "Toepasselijk recht en territoriale bevoegdheid", in P. Van Eecke (ed.), Handboek Internetrecht, Larcier, Brussel, 2011, forthcoming; [applicable law and jurisdiction in E-commerce]
G. VAN CALSTER, and D. BOWMAN, ‘A good foundation? Regulatory oversight of nanotechnologies using cosmetics as a case-study', in Hodge, Bowman and Maynard (eds.), International handbook on regulating nanotechnologies, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2010, 268-290;
G. VAN CALSTER, D. BOWMAN, J. D’SILVA, ‘Trust me, I’m a regulator. The (in)adequacy of EU legislative instruments for 3 Nanotechnologies categories’, in M.E.A. Goodwin, B.J. Koops, R.E. Leenes (eds.), Dimensions of Technology Regulation. Proceedings of the TILT Conference 2008, Nijmegen, Wolf Legal Publishing, 2010, 205-235;
MONICA, J., and VAN CALSTER, G., 'A nanotechnology legal framework', in Hull and Bowman (eds.), Nanotechnology risk management: Perspectives and progress, Burlington, William Andrew /Elsevier, 2010, 97-140;
G. VAN CALSTER, 'Procurement and the World Trade Organisation: Purchase power or pester power?', in Cottier, Thomas, Nartova, Olga, and Bigdeli, Sadeq (eds.), International trade regulation and the mitigation of climate change, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009, 351-359;
Current research interests:
In the standard reference guide the EU Legal 500, Geert is named as being “well regarded for the interface between economic and regulatory law”, and as having an “excellent academic background aligned to pragmatic experience in both public and private sectors.” Prof van Calster's unique research and teaching proposition lies indeed in the combination of a solid knowledge and know-how of core European institutional and economic law, with regulatory law, in particular environmental law.
Environment, health and safety
Geert's specific expertise in environmental and natural resources law is best illustrated by his being the director of studies and co-founder of KU Leuven's successful and unique Master of Energy and Environmental Law program.
Conflict of laws
In conflict of laws and more generally private international law, Geert is specifically interested in the impact of the dramatic increase in European harmonisation of all stages of private international law, on the law of the Member States, and in the tensions between common and civil law approaches to conflict of laws.
Trade law
Geert was one of the first analysts of the impact of international trade law (GATT and WTO Agreements) on regulatory autonomy, including environmental protection. He has built up specific expertise on the trade /regulation interface, looking especially at the GATT (including border tax adjustments, customs and excise), TBT and SPS Agreements.
Nanotechnology regulation
Building on earlier work on legal issues surrounding risk analysis harmonisation, Geert has extensively researched the legal framework for embedding the technology. Prof van Calster and his team (Dr Diana Bowman, Monash University and K.U. Leuven, and Drs Cheryl Micallef-Borg, K.U. Leuven) have reviewed in particular the 'SHE' (safety, health and environment) aspects of the technology, looking also however at international trade, intellectual property, governance and sustainable development concerns.
Prof van Calster's work on the issues has been published in Nature – Nanotechnology, Nanoethics, Environmental Reporter, and Nanotechnology – Law and Business – amongst others.
Climate change law
Prof van Calster has advised a variety of States and stakeholders on the impact of international trade law on climate change, including climate change levies. More generally he researches the optimal design of climate change responses, over and above and /or indeed outside of emission trading schemes. Regulatory innovation, including in the climate change area, was the cornerstone of the research that earned him a tenured research chair at KU Leuven.