Warwick Law School has appointed alumnus Wouter Vandenhole from the University of Antwerp as our new external examiner for the International Development Law and Human Rights LLM. Wouter studied on our LLM in Law and Development back in 1994/95 having graduated in law at the University of Leuven in Belgium. He also holds a PhD from the University of Leuven.

He is currently vice-dean of research at the Faculty of Law at the University of Antwerp and holds the human rights chair and the UNICEF Chair in Children’s Rights. Between 2013 and 2018, he directed the Law and Development research group. Before joining the University of Antwerp in 2007, he held positions at the University of Leuven (Belgium), Tilburg University (the Netherlands) and the European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation (Venice, Italy).

Wouter is a human rights and law-and-development scholar. His research interests include children's rights, human rights, in particular economic, social and cultural rights, and the relationship between human rights law and development. For some years now, he has focused on transnational human rights obligations, i.e. the human rights obligations of new duty-bearers, and in particular on companies. More recently, he started to explore the conceptual implications of sustainable development for human rights law.

He is proud to be a Warwick alumnus and excited about his new role, “the University, through the LLM in law and development, has really been instrumental in my career development. Warwick has been and continues to be the leading university in law and development studies. It also has been instrumental in launching a Law and Development Research Network in 2017.”

The role of external examiner is vital to the quality assurance process and culture of quality enhancement at Warwick. The views and input of our examiners are considered extremely valuable and help to inform the improvement of our processes, procedures and student experience.

“I am honoured and happy that I can give something back to the Law School and its LLM programmes, and to the staff. Without the LLM and the inspiring staff members, I would not have considered an academic career, and certainly not one in the field of law and development.”

Jayan Nayar, Director of our IDLHR LLM commented "We are delighted to welcome Wouter back to the Warwick International Development Law and Human Rights LLM family as our new external examiner. In addition to his knowledge and expertise in the area, his understanding of the history, tradition and ethos of the programme will undoubtedly be of immense value. We look forward to working with him!”

Welcome to the team Wouter.