Curriculum Vitae
Leiden University, Faculty of Law: Juris Doctor 1965; PhD 1971
Erasmus University Rotterdam: Professor of Private Law, Commercial Law and Law of Civil Procedure since 1972; retired on 1 March 2006. PhD doctorates realised: 18.
- Sabbaticals: Berkeley, California, 1977; NYU, New York, 1996, and Cape Town, 2000.
- General Reporter on Pure Economic Loss, IACL, Bristol 1998.
District Court Rotterdam: Part-time judge since 1975 (retired).
Director Institute of Environmental Damage and Liability Law, Rotterdam, 1986-2006.
- Research projects: City of Rotterdam (Port Authority, on harbour pollution; pollution of rivers Rhine and Meuse),
- Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Transport and Waterways (on North Sea oil pollution) and the EEC (water pollution). Contract research funds: ca. € 2 million.
Director Institute of Legal Decision making, Rotterdam, 1982-2006.
- Empirical research on judicial decision making and out-of-court settlements. Several research projects for the Ministry of Justice. Contract research funds: ca. € 0.4 million.
- Editor-in-chief of the Environmental Damage and Liability Law Review, TMA, 1987-2010 (The Hague: SDU).
President Dutch Private Law Association, 1986-1994.
Chairman Legal Committee, Council for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, 1988-1999. International Academy of Comparative Law, IACL (Paris), Membre titulaire.
President of the Board of Arbitration OSB, Association of Cleaning Firms, Den Bosch (including industrial cleaning); in most cases single arbitrator (retired).
Arbitrator NAI (Netherlands Arbitration Institute, Rotterdam), TAMARA (Transport And Maritime Arbitration, Rotterdam-Amsterdam)/UNUM (Transport Arbitration & Mediation): international construction, contract, transport, and corporate take-over cases.
Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London.
Arbitrator ICC Court of Arbitration, Paris: construction dispute between American v. Egyptian parties, 1988-1989 (Chairman). Sole Arbitrator in airline/contractor dispute, 1999-2001; Arbitrator in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2023, in contract disputes, wreck salvage.
Adjudicator in several FIDIC construction contracts in a wind park project.
Author of legal opinions on construction law (toll bridge, tunnels, infra-structure, energy), contract law and environmental liability. Publications(available on my website), e.g.:
- Verbintenissenrecht (‘Law of Obligations’), Volumes I and II, 5th ed. 2004, Deventer: Kluwer.
- Vol. 1, Contractenrecht (Law of Contract), 6th ed. 2023, Zutphen: Uitgeverij Paris, 1223 pp.
- The Duty of Care in Contract and Tort. Selected Essays on Contract, Construction Law, Environmental Liability, Jurisprudence, 2006, Maastricht: Shaker Publishing.
- ‘Force majeure and Frustration of Contract’, 20(2) Internat. Construction LR, 2002, p.162 ff.
- ‘On a Clear Day, You Can See the Continent – The Shrouded Acceptance of Good Faith as a General Rule of Contract Law on the British Isles’, 31 Construction Law Journal 2015-1, p.3-25.