Dr Valérie van 't Lam appointed special professor of Environmental Law

Dr Valérie van 't Lam has been appointed Professor of Environmental Law at the Faculty of Law, in cooperation with the Groninger University Foundation (GUF), with effect from 1 August 2025.

Challenges in the world of environmental law

As a functional area of law, today's environmental law focuses on the transition to a carbon-neutral and also sustainable society and it is therefore highly relevant to a large number of policy and legal areas. For example, environmental law and the influence thereof is increasingly reflected in national as well as international and European corporate, private and criminal law.

This endowed chair focuses on the question what this intertwinement means for the effectiveness of current (public law) environmental law instruments. Not just for government that uses the instruments of environmental law to achieve policy goals, but also for market actors that require a sufficiently legally certain business environment for their survival and economic development and for citizens that rely on a healthy environment.

As Professor of Environmental Law, Van 't Lam is an important addition to the existing knowledge and expertise in the broad field of environmental law. She is eminently capable of forming a bridge between science and practice and, given the university's research themes Energy and Sustainable Society, can function as a connecting link between various legal areas and different scientific disciplines within the Law Faculty and the University of Groningen.

Curriculum Vitae

Van 't Lam studied Dutch law at Utrecht University (Private Law and Constitutional and Administrative Law). She obtained her PhD at the same university in 2005 with a dissertation on a core concept of Dutch environmental law, namely on the important starting point of the regulation of environmentally harmful activities: inrichting. She is currently a lawyer (partner) at the law firm Stibbe in Amsterdam, where she has long run an legal practice in spatial planning of which environmental law forms an important part.

Van ‘t Lam is also, among other things, an experienced lecturer of environmental law for both students and professionals, a member of the board at the Environmental Law Association (VMR), a case law analyst for the journal Milieu & Recht, member of the editorial board for Tijdschrift voor Omgevingsrecht and author of many publications in the field of environmental law, including the Handboek Omgevingswet and Tekst & Commentaar Omgevingsrecht.

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This article was published by the Faculty of Law.