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Renate Barbaix is specialised in family property law, specially in inheritance law. Her research is both individual and as a promotor of several PhD students.

Technique

Legal research

Users

Academic and practical

Keywords

Patrimonial family law, Inheritance

Legal expert in animal law and rights of nature.

Technique

Legal doctrinal research, comparative research, fieldwork, qualitative interviews.

Users

Legal scholars, students, media, ngos, organizations, animal researchers.

Keywords

Animal law

Leontine Bruijnen's research explores the interaction between private international law and other legal domains, including (Islamic) family law, migration law, and children's rights law. In June 2025, she successfully defended her PhD, which examined the recognition of kafala and child marriage for family law purposes and migration law purposes in Belgium and Germany.

Technique

Leontine Bruijnen uses traditional legal research methods, such as analysing legislation, case law and legal literature. She is also familiar with empirical research conducted through focus groups.

Users

Academics, policymakers and other professionals, such as lawyers and government officials, who deal with family law, migration law and private international law can utilise Leontine Bruijnen’s expertise.

Keywords

Family law, Kafala, Islamic law, Child marriage, Migration law, International private law

Publications (esp) on construction law (e.g. Handbook Construction Law, 2013)

Technique

Publications and lectures

Users

lawyers in general, notaries, judges, attorneys, governments, building sector ...

Keywords

Administrative structure, Theoretical study, Vulnerable groups

Ariel specializes in feminist legal theory, property law, and family law. Her research interests include gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, masculinity studies, and critical legal perspectives.

Technique

Besides doctrinal legal research as well as socio-legal research, Ariel often utilizes interdisciplinary research methods, combining legal studies with philosophy and gender studies.

Users

Fellow researchers, civil society organizations, lawyers and students

Keywords

Masculinity studies, Lgbtq+ rights, Feminist theories, Gender equality

I study civil law from a law-in-context perspective. My research focuses substantively on family law, succession law, and (private) law and gender, and methodologically on socio-legal and comparative legal research approaches. My current research priorities are: 1. Gender and private law 2. Protection mechanisms in family law vs. economic private law 3. Family diversity and succession law

Technique

- Doctrinal legal research - Comparative legal analysis - Socio-legal theories, with an emphasis on gender studies - Policy-oriented

Users

- Policy-makers - Legal scholars - Civil society - General public

Keywords

Comparative law, Gender, Law of inheritance, Family law

Karl Hendrickx's research focuses on plain and correct legal language in different types of legal texts. He analyses the lexical and syntactic characteristics of legal letters, judgements, notarial deeds and legislative texts.

Technique

- revision and rewriting of legal texts based on the plain language principles - supervision of studies in readability using the thinking aloud method - supervision of studies in readability using the plus-minus method

Users

- lawyers, magistrates, bailiffs, notaries, legal consultants - politicians and public managers dealing with legal and government communication - law students

Keywords

Professional communication, Legal skills, Readability, Communication skills training, Institutional communication

Health and liability law

Technique

Advice practice and procedures

Users

Health care providers and lawyers

Keywords

Liability law, Health law

Expertise in Belgian and comparative general administrative law, and more specific principles of good administration, administrative decision-making and procedure, protection against the executive and land use law.

Technique

Traditional legal analysis (e.g. case law analysis of the administrative courts) Comparative legal analysis.

Users

Academics, politicians, civil servants, lawyers, judges, law students ...

Keywords

Council of state, Law of evidence, Principles of good administration, Legal protection against the executive

Conflict resolution is an important mission of any legal system. Traditionally, there is a public perception that the courts end conflicts; however, the legal reality is different. Many conflicts are resolved not by a judge, but through alternative dispute resolution. This research analyzes conventional out-of-court solutions that derive their binding force and legal effect from contract and contract law. As a generic umbrella term for these instruments (e.g., settlement agreements and binding third-party decisions), this book uses the term “settlement agreement. This term is not known as such in Belgian law, but a number of applications can be found in the law, case law and legal doctrine. Although ending a conflict is of primary importance to the parties, case law shows that a settlement agreement does not always provide the desired legal certainty. This seems to conflict with the raison d'être of alternative dispute resolution. In addition, it is a fundamental principle of law that everyone should have access to a judge. Without the court's power of review, one cannot counter possible abuses. Therefore, it is also defensible that parties cannot simply sideline a judge. Thus, there seems to be a tension between the parties' need for maximum legal certainty through a settlement agreement and the peopler

Technique

Comparison of legal doctrine Analysis of law Analysis of case law and legal doctrine

Users

Legal doctrine; legal practicians

Keywords

Company law, Liability law, Civil law

Legal advice and consultancy for private individuals and private and public organisations Speeches, seminars, education Supervision of projects of policy or basic research projects

Technique

Legal-dogmatic research Socio-legal methods (social theory; qualitative empirical research)

Users

Individuals and families Public and private organisations Academic research units

Keywords

Law of persons, Youth law, Nationality, Art and law, Inheritance, Family law, Human rights

My research concerns an analyses of the legal issues that may be raised by potentially controversial interventions in the fields of health law and, to some extent, kinship. My research subjects include, but are not restricted to: abortion; euthanasia and medically assisted suicide; (living) organ donation and organ trafficking; prenatal testing, medically assisted procreation, surrogacy; biobanking; human subjects research; coercive measures. Apart from using a strictly legal approach, I als apply insights from ethics and philosophy of law.

Technique

The main research technique is desk research of national, international and supranational regulations, case law, and doctrine.

Users

The findings of my research will be useful to legal experts, physicians and other health professionals, bioethicists, and governmental agencies working in the field.

Keywords

Bio-ethics and law, Human rights law, Criminal law and procedure, Medical law, Kinship, Civil law, Philosophy of law

Legal psycholoy research on the pre-trial stage in criminal proceedings, such as police interviewing, interrogation of juvenile suspects, legal assistance, use of suspect's rights. Legal psychology research on legal decision making in criminal cases, in particular evidential value of criminal evidence. Expert-witness in criminal cases. Training of legal actors (police, lawyers).

Technique

Qualitative and quantitative research methods of empirical research in social sciences.

Users

Academics, police, lawyers, magistrates (prosecutors, judges).

Keywords

Legal assistance, Legal decision making, Investigative interviewing, Legal aid

Expertise in the topics at the intersection of family law, children's rights and private international law (including the hearing of children, international child abduction, international surrogacy, adoption in general) and in the meta-legal topic of how to deal with fields of law that interact with each other.

Technique

The following methods were used in the research: - Classical legal research (analysis of legislation, case law, legal doctrine) - Comparative legal research (mainly between Belgium, the Netherlands, England & Wales, Ireland and Switzerland) - Use of NVivo to collect, code and analyse case law

Users

The direct stakeholders are first, all the legal actors that are or can be involved in cross-border civil proceedings that involve children. These include the judges, registrars, family lawyers, family mediators and central authorities. Second, the direct stakeholders also include all the actors that can decide or can influence how cross-border civil proceedings are conducted. These include national and EU-lawmakers, authorities in the field of children’s rights (e.g., Children’s Commissioners or Ombudsmen, NGO’s), and academics. The indirect but final stakeholders are the families and children involved in cross-border proceedings.

Keywords

Family matters, Children's rights, Human rights law

Legal consult, research projects and educational assistance on all research topics mentioned here : the law of obligations, contract law, tort law, insurance law, environmental law and medical law

Technique

Conceptual analysis.

Users

Public and private sector

Keywords

Contract law, Medical law, Insurance law, Liability law, Tort law, Law of obligations

Roman Law and its reception, especially editions of medieval source material.

Technique

Reading books, articles and manuscripts.

Users

Researchers in Roman law and medieval (legal) history.

Keywords

Legal history