Jacob van de Velden

Jacob van de Velden joined the Institute in March 2006.

He directs the Institute's research and activities in the field of private international law. Besides private international law, he specialises in European Community law.

Public Documents Project (2006)

From March 2006 until July 2007 he coordinated a comparative study for the European Commission on the difficulties faced by citizens and economic operators because of the obligation to legalise documents within the Member States of the European Union, and the possible options for abolishing or simplifying this obligation.

In July 2007 the general report for the study was submitted titled 'The use of public documents in the EU: a legal analysis of the use of public documents in the Community's internal market and civil justice area, including an analysis of the compatibility with Community law of formalities applicable in the Member States with regard to the recognition of foreign public documents'.

Judgments Project (2007)

In 2007, he directs a new study titled 'The effect in the European Community of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters: Recognition, Res Judicata and Abuse of Process'. Besides an analysis of the Brussels/Lugano regimes, the study involves a functional comparison of the rules on the authority and effectiveness of domestic and foreign judgments in 10 legal systems, including the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US. Those rules determine the dispositive, procedural and evidential effects of judgments.

Seminar series on private international law

He coordinates the Institute's seminar series on private international law. The series is dedicated to an important (re)evaluation of the British landscape in the field of private international law which is subject to increasing processes of cultivation at the European Community level, and important developments at the international level, for example with the establishment of several important Conventions at the Hague Conference for Private International Law.

Besides, on an ad hoc basis, the series includes seminars following developments in case law and legislation, for example the West Tankers ECJ reference and the proposed Rome I Regulation.

Background

Groningen University (NL) and the T.M.C. Asser Institute (NL): research for a PhD on the development of the principle of party autonomy under influence of European integration by means of EC Directives (2003-). Continued under the supervision of Professor Mathijs ten Wolde (Groningen University & Ulrik Huber Institute of Private International Law).

European Commission: trainee at the private international law department of DG Freedom, Security and Justice. In the European Commission he worked on international tort law (Rome II), international contract law (Rome I), and international jurisdiction (Brussels I).

European Parliament: assistant of John Bowis OBE MEP. In the Parliament he worked on the Commission's REACH proposal regarding the registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemical substances.

Lectures on private international law at Groningen University and the Asser College Europe LLM Programme.