Castermans, Maxime | Maxime Castermans holds a Master's degree in Law (KU Leuven, 2021) and a Master's degree in Gender and Diversity (UGent, 2022). She spent a semester at the Université de Montpellier as part of an Erasmus exchange program. During her Master's in Gender and Diversity, she interned at the office of the then State Secretary for Gender Equality, Equal Opportunities, and Diversity. From August 2022 to May 2023, she conducted research at the University of Antwerp on the legal and ethical framework regarding elder abuse, as part of the CLOCK research project (Care and Law for Older Citizens: Keeping out abuse). Currently, Maxime is a full-time doctoral researcher at the AHLEC Chair (Antwerp Health Law and Ethics Chair). Her research focuses on medical interventions for trans and intersex minors. Specifically, she explores the changing interpretation of the "best interests of the child" in the context of gender-affirming and "sex-normalizing" medical interventions. Her research spans national, international, and supranational levels. It also includes a comparative legal analysis of the regulatory frameworks in Belgium, the Netherlands, Malta, and England and Wales. |
De Mulder, Charlotte | Charlotte De Mulder obtained her Master's degree in Law from the University of Antwerp in 2018. She conducts research on the legal status and protection of unborn life. This research falls within the realms of family law, health law, and human rights law. As part of this research, she examines various applications of protecting unborn life, including abortion, actions involving embryos in vitro, preventive and punitive interventions in cases of prenatal harm and stillbirth. The objective of this research is to develop a coherent and consistent legal framework for the status and protection of unborn life in Belgian law. The hypothesis is that the concept of human dignity can serve as its foundation. Charlotte is a mandate assistant in family law. She is also a co-author of several publications on intercountry adoption. |
Decoster, Ariël | Ariël is a doctoral researcher specialised in feminist legal theory and critical legal masculinity studies at the University of Antwerp and Ghent. Her FWO-funded dissertation, entitled “Masculinity as Property”, sits at the intersection of legal studies, gender studies, and philosophy. She relies on the notion of property as a heuristic tool to make visible where male privilege hides in an increasingly gender-neutral legal system. In this way, her research rethinks the way law, gender and power are intertwined. Ariel was previously a Fulbright student at the University of California, Los Angeles and a visiting researcher at King’s College London as well as the University of California, Irvine |
El Yattouti, Naoual | Naoual El Yattouti is a PhD Researcher and FWO Fellow at the University of Antwerp. She studied law at the University of Antwerp and spent an Erasmus semester at the Católica Global School of Law in Lisbon. In her research Naoual focuses on the rights and duties of healthcare providers and patients when manifesting their religion. The study is twofold: firstly, it scrutinizes the justifications behind restricting healthcare providers from wearing religious dress when providing care and seeks to evaluate the desirability of such prohibitions. Secondly, her research explores the intersection of health law and discrimination law when healthcare providers are faced with potentially discriminatory requests from patients (not) to be treated by a provider of a specific sex/gender, race, ethnicity, or religion. The emphasis is on investigating the manifestation of a potential right to culturally appropriate healthcare within the framework of discrimination law. |
| Istace, Timo
| Timo Istace is a doctoral researcher and FWO fellow at the University of Antwerp. He holds a Master's degree in Law (UAntwerpen and Université de Namur, 2020) and Philosophy (UAntwerpen, 2023). He is also affiliated with the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights as a researcher and is an active member of the Antwerp Health Law and Ethics Chair (AHLEC). His expertise spans several areas, including human rights law, medical law, legal philosophy, and bioethics. In his research, he specifically focuses on analyzing the implications of emerging technologies, particularly neurotechnology, within these fields. |
Keukeleire, Artuur | Artuur holds a master's degree in law (2020, great distinction). He is now preparing a doctoral thesis on contracts concluded on online platforms viewed from the perspective of general contract law. As a teaching assistant, he supervises undergraduate and graduate courses in the field of the law of obligations. Artuur has several publications, nationally and internationally, and has presented aspects of his doctoral research and the new law of obligations to academic and non-academic audiences on several occasions. Artuur conducts research on online platform contract conclusions, under the scope of national contract law. He studies the common protection of platform users against restrictive measures by the platform operator and (unreasonable) advantages enjoyed by other users under the platform contract. Specifically, his research concerns the identification of the parties to the platform contract, the determination of the contract content and the revocability of consent to the platform contract. |
Leire, Damiaan | Damiaan studied law at the University of Antwerp and obtained his master's degree in 2021. Damiaan focuses on (intestate) inheritance law and, more specifically, examines the role of equity corrections in preventing and resolving conflicts that may arise in the event of a mathematically equal division of the inheritance among descendants. To this end, legal comparisons are made with French and Dutch law and reference is also made to (legal) sociological literature. |
Lievens, Sven | Sven studied Law at the University of Antwerp (2016-2021). During his Masters, Sven was a Student-Researcher at the Research Group of Government and Law. Sven conducts research on the scope and conditions of the loss of a chance doctrine in extracontractual liability law and the law of evidence. His research takes place on the basis of a functional law comparison with Germany, the Netherlands and the United States of America. Sven also teaches the practicum on Tort Law and Risk Insurance (3rd BACH) and assists in the Advance Course on Tort Law and Risk Insurance for Master students (2nd Master). |
Lotoczuk, Marta | Marta has a master's degree in law (2023, University of Antwerp). She did an internship at the Council of State and was a student worker at the legal service of the Council for Alien Disputes. She was a student researcher in the Government & Law research group and conducted research in the context of the JUDICON-EU Project. Marta was a member of the Diversity student panel at the University of Antwerp. Marta Łotoczuk is a full-time doctoral researcher on an IMPULS project. The project is about the legal aspects of medical decision-making in a diverse society. Persons with a migration background, especially those from non-Western countries, can experience major difficulties in seeking medical care. Some of the most important challenges arise in medical decision-making, where cultural preferences for close family involvement are difficult to reconcile with the Western model of medicine, as enshrined in health law and medical deontology. This is the first comprehensive research project on medical decision-making in patients with a migration background in the European context. In addition, the right to culturally appropriate health law is examined and placed in context. |
Panneel, Margot | Margot is a full-time PhD-student under the AHLEC Chair. She has a master's degree in law (2022, UAntwerpen) and a master's degree in human rights and democratisation (2023, Global Campus of Human Rights). She completed an internship at the Prosecutor's Office of Antwerp under the direction of prosecutor Dennis Van den Cruys. Her doctorate is situated within health law. In her research, she studies the legal framework governing medical experimentation on human beings and examines where the current legislation leads to difficulties in practice. This research is situated at both the national and supranational level and will also involve legal comparison with other countries. During this research she will also try to incorporate a human rights perspective by focusing on vulnerable groups and the right to equal access to health care. |
Schollaert, Victor | Victor Schollaert studied law at Ghent University (with high distinction) and philosophy at the Free University of Brussels (with highest distinction). Since 2021, he has been working as a doctoral researcher at the Antwerp Liability Law and Insurance Chair (ALLIC), University of Antwerp. He is preparing a dissertation on the existence and redress of moral damage in Belgian tort law. Victor also publishes on the impact of artificial intelligence on tort law. |
Stevens, Chelsea | Chelsea Stevens holds a Master's degree in Law (University of Antwerp, 2022). Since 2022, she has been a doctoral researcher at the University of Antwerp, funded by the Antwerp Health Law and Ethics Chair (AHLEC), focusing on the legal position of the chief medical officer. This research primarily addresses the legal position of the chief medical officer within the hospital organizational structure and to what extent this legal position aligns with the principles of good hospital governance. |
Van Den Houte, Bert | |
Van Vaerenbergh, Julie | Julie studied law at the University of Antwerp and completed her master's degree in 2022. After obtaining her master's in law, she worked as a legal trainee for five months at Equator, a law firm specialized in construction law. However, since February 1, 2023, Julie has been a doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Law at the University of Antwerp. Brief description of the doctoral research: Her classical legal research focuses on the content and scope of contractual fault from a comparative legal perspective with France and the Netherlands. Currently, a twofold distinction between a result obligation and an obligation of appropriate means is used to determine the existence of a contractual fault. In her doctoral thesis, she will, however, address the shortcomings of the current distinction, particularly how the guarantee obligation and the safety obligation can be integrated into this distinction of obligations. |
Verhofstede, Thibaut | |
Vreven, Noa | Noa completed her Bachelor of Laws in 2021 and then enrolled in the Master of Laws (European Constitutionalism and Fundamental Rights) at the University of Antwerp, where she graduated in 2023. During her Master’s studies, Noa followed the aspiring researcher program at the Faculty of Law and completed an exchange in Trento, Italy (Università di Trento). Her Master’s thesis dealt with the right to sexual integrity. Currently, Noa is a teaching and research assistant at the Faculty of Law of the University of Antwerp under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Elise Goossens, in the field of civil law in context, with a specific interest in reproductive and sexual rights, and gender studies. In her doctoral research, Noa will investigate the added value of a gender-sensitive recognition of the right to reproductive autonomy in Europe. To answer this question, Noa will analyze the effective implementation of the European Court of Human Rights’ case law on reproduction within national legal frameworks. She will then deconstruct the impact of this case law from a gender theoretical perspective. The aim is to assess whether the existing European legal framework and case law are sufficient to guarantee both the freedom not to reproduce and the right to reproduce. |
| | Geassocieerde leden/ Associated Members |
Kilimcioglu, Begüm | |
Schenk, Jonathan | |