Jan Wouters

Jan Wouters is Full Professor of International Law and International Organizations, Jean Monnet Chair ad personam EU and Global Governance, and founding Director of the Institute for International Law and of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, an interdisciplinary research centre with the status of both a Jean Monnet and KU Leuven Centre of Excellence, at KU Leuven. He is also President of KU Leuven’s International Policy Council. He studied law and philosophy at Antwerp University, obtained an LL.M. at Yale University and was Visiting Researcher at Harvard University. As Visiting Professor at Sciences Po (Paris), Luiss University (Rome) and the College of Europe (Bruges) he teaches EU external relations law. As Adjunct Professor at Columbia University he teaches on the EU and human rights. He is also currently Visiting Professor at Queen Mary University (London), Paris-II (Panthéon-Assas) and the World Trade Institute (Bern). Prof. Wouters is a Member of the Royal Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts and practises law as Of Counsel at Linklaters, Brussels.

He is Editor of the International Encyclopedia of Intergovernmental Organizations, Deputy Director of the Revue Belge de Droit International, and an editorial board member in eleven international journals. He has published widely on international and EU law, international organizations, global governance, and corporate and financial law, including 80 books, 150 journal articles and 260 chapters in international books.

His most recent books include China, the EU and the Developing World (2015), Global Governance of Labour Rights (2015), Global Governance Through Trade (2015), The Contribution of International and Supranational Courts to the Rule of Law (2015), Global Governance and Democracy (2015), Armed Conflicts and the Law (2016), Judicial Decisions on the Law of International Organizations (2016), Research Handbook on EU Energy Law and Policy (2017), Commercial Uses of Space and Space Tourism (2017), The Commons and a New Global Governance (2018), EU Human Rights and Democratization Policies (2018), International Law: a European Perspective (2018), The G7, Anti-Globalism and the Governance of Globalization (2018), The Faces of Human Rights (2019), Changing Borders in Europe (2019), General Principles of Law and the Coherence of International Law (2019), Parliamentary Cooperation and Diplomacy in EU External Relations (2019), The Belt and Road Initiative and Global Governance (2020), Assessing the 2019 European Parliament Elections (2020), Internationaal Recht in Kort Bestek (3rd ed. 2020), The Law of EU External Relations (3rd ed. 2020), Can We Still Afford Human Rights? (2020), The European Union and Human Rights: Law and Policy (2020), The EU and Human Rights: Analysis, Cases and Material (2021), The Rule of Law and Areas of Limited Statehood (2021), and Japan, the European Union and Global Governance (2021). 

He was coordinator of the large FP7 Programme FRAME (“Fostering Human Rights Among European External and Internal Policies”) and currently coordinates the large Horizon 2020 Project RECONNECT (“Reconnecting Europe with its Citizens through Democracy and Rule of Law”) and a six-year multidisciplinary research programme CONNECTIVITY (“Connectivity, Contestation and Cooperation in Global Governance”), funded by KU Leuven. Apart from his participation in international scientific networks, he advises international organizations and governments, trains international officials and is often asked to comment international events in the media.

Education

• PhD, KU Leuven
• Yale Law School
• University of Antwerp