Paul De Hert

Biography

In his formative years, de Hert studied law, philosophy and religious sciences (1985-1992). After several books and articles in law and a productive decade of research for the Flemish Funds for Scientific Research, the Belgian Justice Department, the Department of Interior Affairs and the Brussels University Research Council in areas such as policing, video surveillance, international cooperation in criminal affairs and international exchange of police information, he broadened up his scope of interests and published a book on the European Convention on Human Rights (1998) and defended a doctorate in law in which he compared the constitutional strength of eighteenth and twentieth century constitutionalism in the light of contemporary social control practices ('Early Constitutionalism and Social Control. Liberal Democracy Hesitating between Rights Thinking and Liberty Thinking' (2000, Promoter: Prof. dr. Bart De Schutter (VUB)). Currently, at Brussels, Paul De Hert holds the chair of 'Criminal Law', and 'International and European Criminal Law'. In the past he has held the chair of 'Human Rights', 'Legal theory', 'Historical introduction to eight major constitutional systems' and 'Constitutional criminal law'. He is Co-Director of the Research group Law Science Technology & Society (LSTS), Director of the Research group on human rights (HUMR), and Director of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Law (Metajuridics). He is board member of several Belgian, Dutch and (other) international scientific journals such as The Computer Law & Security Review (Elsevier), The Inter-American and European Human Rights Journal (Intersentia) and Criminal Law & Philosophy (Springer). He is co-editor in chief of the Supranational Criminal Law Series (Intersentia) and of the New Journal of European Criminal law (Intersentia).

Research Interest

Prof. Paul De Hert's work addresses problems in the area of privacy & technology, human rights and criminal law. Currently he is expanding his scope of interest including research on issues with regard to the human rights status of the elderly and the principle of neutrality in a democratic state. To satisfy his multiple curiosities de Hert teams up regularly with other authors. A human rights approach combined with a concern for theory is the common denominator of all his work.