PhD cum laude for Björn Hoops

On Thursday 14 December, Björn Hoops, Assistant Professor in Private Law and Notary Law, defended his PhD thesis entitled 'The legitimate justification of expropriation'. For this he was awarded a cum laude distinction,– an exceptional achievement in the Groningen Law Faculty. Besides Dr. Hoops, Dr. Harm Mark Pit also obtained his PhD cum laude this year.

Hoops's thesis is a comparative study of the conditions under which expropriation is lawful for the purpose of economic development in the Netherlands, Germany, New York and South Africa. He analyses which conditions must be fulfilled for the expropriation to be lawful, as well as which government bodies have competence in this field and which procedures are applied. In order to assess the quality of the conditions, Hoops compares these to internationally recognized standards.

Hoops's thesis is a comparative study of the conditions under which expropriation is lawful for the purpose of economic development in the Netherlands, Germany, New York and South Africa. He analyses which conditions must be fulfilled for the expropriation to be lawful, as well as which government bodies have competence in this field and which procedures are applied. In order to assess the quality of the conditions, Hoops compares these to internationally recognized standards.

His thesis demonstrates that economic development created by private companies is judged to be a legitimate goal in all the jurisdictions under examination. However, he points out that there are vast differences between them and argues that all the systems need to adjust their laws in several ways in order to meet international standards.

This article was published by the Faculty of Law.

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