Staff members with discipline International & European Law
Academia develops at the interface of different fields. This is one reason why the University of Groningen is home to a wide range of fields, each with a great number of subject specialists. The overview below, which is based on a standard categorization of fields, will help you find the right expert for each field. If you cannot find the expert you are looking for in this list, try searching via a related field or faculty; you may find him or her there.









EU institutional law
Competition law
State aid






International criminal law
International human rights law









I am interested in the transition from abstract principles (e.g. human rights, ethical principles) into more detailed and specific governance frameworks (e.g. human right to privacy into GDPR). With my background in law and philosophy I work in the department of Governance and Innovation at Campus Fryslân.
Current fields of research:
- Human Rights in the Digital Age.
- Emerging Technologies and Governance (incl. ‘AI’, ‘Blockchain’).
- Internet Governance.
- Privacy and Data Protection.
- (Cyber-)Security & Surveillance in the context of democracy and the rule of law.
- Digital Identity.
- Personal Data and Time (‘right to be forgotten’).

Lucas's research focuses on risks of discrimination that arise through the use of algorithmic decision-making and AI, and the mitigation of these risks, in law enforcement agencies in the Netherlands. In this context, Lucas considers several themes such as current and future legislation, ethics in AI and algorithmic decision-making, operationalization and implementation of legal and ethical principles, as well as risk mitigation strategies adopted by law enforcement agencies seeking to comply with such principles. His research is part of the empirical legal studies program, and as such combines qualitative and legal research methods.
Alongside his research, Lucas teaches the course Administrative Law and Market Regulation. Furthermore, he is a participant in the Justice, fundamentaL rIghts and Artificial intelligence (JuLIA) project. This project aims to provide European judges with training and a handbook in the field of artificial intelligence and fundamental rights. The European Commission funds the JULIA Project.




- International and European human rights law
- Socio-economic human rights law
- Access to modern energy services / energy poverty
- Disaster management / international disaster law
- Environment/climate change (litigation)
- Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- Extra-territorial/transnational human rights law
- New/critical approaches to IL / feminist approaches




EU External Relations Law
EU Trade and Investment Law and Policy

Teaching: Public international law; International human rights law; Legal English


1. Rights and citizenship in the virtual world - I imagine virtual spaces as expanding geographies, where norms, values, and communities of digital citizens are evolving. Social media platforms have become an extension of our cultures, polity, and economy. Every day millions of people around the world redefine cultural norms, assert their political identities, and monetize the platforms for gainful living. But who determines the nature of rights (especially the nature of the right to freedom of expression) on these platforms? Can the platforms which are controlled by monopolistic tech companies, truly be a space of citizenship much less responsible citizenship? How does a digital citizen who lives in a bubble shape their worldview? How do they reach out for varied forms of information to form opinions? Can they burst the information bubbles that surround them? These are some of the questions I explore while simultaneously entering into the rabbit holes of disinformation, digitally generated social movements, and circles of hate.
2. Construction of citizenship in the real world, especially in geographies that are becoming uninhabitable due to climate change. This is a work that I started during my doctoral studies at Edinburgh, and I continue to look at both online and offline citizenship (especially the question of citizenship -exclusion, and 'othering') from the lens of vulnerabilities in the face of climate change.
Both these strands of the scholarship allow me to explore how our future societies will develop, and who humanity might forever leave behind.



NOTABLE AWARDS & POSITIONS
Prof. Merkouris has received a number of prestigious grants, awards & fellowships (in more detail see 'CV' section). More recently, in 2018 he received an ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million EUR for a 5-year project, entitled The Rules of Interpretation of Customary International Law (TRICI-Law, website at: www.trici-law.com). The project aims to demonstrate that the unwritten rules of international law (customary international law) are subject to a process of interpretation that bears similarities to the one that we are accustomed to employing when we are dealing with written texts, and more specifically international treaties.
In the context of this project, Prof. Merkouris in collaboration with Cambridge University Press, agreed in 2020 to create a Book Series entitled 'TRICI-Law', of which Prof. Merkouris will be the General Editor. The books and Volumes planned to appear in this Series will be Gold Open Access in an effort to promote access to information to the general public in conformity with Dutch and EU policies and efforts towards increased Open Access in academia (see in more detail 'Projects' section).
In 2019, Prof. Merkouris was also selected to become a member of the Young Academy Groningen, and with members of the 2019 Cohort he is involved in the SOCRATES (Scientists Offering CReating Answers To Enquiring Students) and In the LOOP projects (see in more detail 'Projects' section).


Customary International Law
Legal Theory
Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL)
Critical Approaches to International Law











Law of Armed Conflict
Public International Law


Digital forensics
Technology law
Data protection

The right to respect for private life;
The collision of fundamental rights;
Sex work regulation in the Netherlands.

She is co-founder of the Groningen Centre for Health Law (former Global Health Law Groningen), which hosts around fifteen researchers focusing on various dimensions of health and human rights. She has published widely in legal, public health and multidisciplinary journals, including Human Rights Quarterly, Harvard Health and Human Rights, the BMJ, and Tobacco Control, and she participates in several international and domestic bodies (see below). Toebes has conducted research in the field of tobacco control since 2016, with a particular emphasis on developing a human rights approach. She frequently acts as a consultant to international bodies, including the WHO and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. In 2022, Brigit was awarded the Legal Specialist Award by the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL). Key publications include Health and Human Rights (2022, 2e ed), Human Rights and Tobacco Control (open access), and Research Handbook on Global Health Law (2018). Contact: please send me an email.

![A. (dr. Aikaterini [Katerina]) Tsampi, PhD](/staff/a.tsampi/photo.png?unique=1611052073802.jpg)
- Indigenous rights
- The return/ repatriation of colonial-era cultural heritage
- Cultural heritage/ art law (in particular UNESCO treaties and comparative perspectives on questions of return/ restitution and repatriation of cultural heritage)
Other research interests comprise: Indigenous and Aboriginal Laws, economic and social rights, and Human rights law more broadly conceived (International, European and comparative).










Environmental Litigation,
Judicial Systems,
European Constitutional Law,
The Rule of Law in Europe,
EU Gambling Legislation,
Comparative Federalism.


Digital Governance
Sustainability
State of Emergency and Humanitarian Action
Interdisciplinary Research and Education Management
