Paulien de Winter appointed professor by special appointment of Supervision

Dr Paulien de Winter has been appointed professor by special appointment of Supervision at the Faculty of Law. The chair has been established by Vide, the professional association for professionals in the field of supervision, inspection, enforcement and evaluation.

She will hold this position alongside her current appointment at the Department of Constitutional Law, Administrative Law and Legal Theory at Utrecht University.

Application of rules in practice

As professor by special appointment of Supervision, Paulien de Winter will be engaged in the interdisciplinary empirical study of supervisory practice. Her research focuses, among other things, on the application of rules in practice, including in the social domain.

Supervision is a way of organising social and legal control. The study of supervision requires an interdisciplinary approach. The foundations of supervision are embedded in legal norms.

How does supervision work and what are its effects?

A behavioural science perspective is also needed to properly understand how specific rules work. Empirical research maps out how supervision works and what its effects are.

This raises questions such as: What is the effect of supervision on the stability of the financial system or on the functioning of markets? What requirements should be imposed on the independence of supervisory authorities? How should supervision in the physical or social domain be shaped in light of the principle of service and the relationship between government and citizens? How can an efficient supervisory strategy be developed?

Curriculum Vitae

Paulien de Winter is well known to the Department of Constitutional Law, Administrative Law and Public Administration; she worked there from 2014 to 2024, first as a PhD student and later as a university lecturer. In 2019, she obtained her PhD with her research thesis “Tussen de Regels” (Between the Rules), a socio-legal study of the enforcement of social security legislation.

She received grants for her research from the Gratama Fund and the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA), among others. De Winter is involved in the NWA project “Reflexive Supervision” (with EUR and Radboud).

De Winter is a member of the editorial board of the Tijdschrift voor Toezicht (TvT) and the European Journal for Empirical Legal Studies (EJELS). She is also a board member of the Association for Social Scientific Study of Law (VSR).