Rate My Professor Jan Wouters

Jan Wouters is Full Professor of International Law and International Organizations and Jean Monnet Chair ad personam 'EU and Global Governance' in the Faculty of Law and Criminology at KU Leuven. He is the founding Director of the Institute for International Law and the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, a KU Leuven Centre of Excellence. Wouters studied law and philosophy at the University of Antwerp, obtained an LL.M. at Yale University, and served as Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School. He holds visiting professorships at Sciences Po Paris, Paris-II Panthéon-Assas, LUISS Rome, and the College of Europe in Bruges, teaching EU external relations law, and is Adjunct Professor at Columbia University teaching on the EU and human rights. Additionally, he is Of Counsel at Linklaters in Brussels and a Member of the Royal Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts.

Professor Wouters specializes in international and EU law, international organizations, global governance, and corporate and financial law. He has published extensively, with over 80 books, more than 150 journal articles, and 260 chapters in edited volumes. Notable works include The Law of EU External Relations (3rd ed., 2021), The Belt and Road Initiative and Global Governance (2020), Global Governance and Democracy (2015), and China, the EU and the Developing World (2015). He coordinated the European research projects FRAME (2013-2017) on fostering human rights in EU policies and RECONNECT (2018-2022) on reconnecting Europe with its citizens through democracy and rule of law, and currently leads the KU Leuven-funded CONNECTIVITY programme on connectivity, contestation, and cooperation in global governance. Wouters edits the International Encyclopedia of Intergovernmental Organizations, is Deputy Director of the Revue Belge de Droit International, and serves on the editorial boards of eleven international journals. He advises international organizations and governments, trains officials, and frequently comments on international developments in the media. In 2023, he was awarded the Serge Lazareff Prize for Excellence in Legal Services.