Full Professor of Private Law
TLS: Tilburg Law School
TLS: Private, Business and Labour Law
Prof. dr. Paul Verbruggen studied law at Tilburg Law School and defended his PhD thesis at the European University Institute in Florence. He worked as a guest researcher at Law School of the London School of Economics and Political Science and at the Faculty of Law of Oxford University. Verbruggen received an NWO VENI grant for the project 'The constitutionalization of private regulation' and held the Tijdschrift voor Privaatrecht (Private Law Journal) rotating chair at KU Leuven. In 2022, he was appointed Full Professor of Private Law.
Paul Verbruggen specializes in Dutch and European private law. His other areas of interest include legal methodology and the use of data science techniques for doctrinal legal research.
In his work, Verbruggen focuses on the allocation of responsibility regarding health, environmental, and safety risks in global value chains and production networks. One relevant theme is the civil liability of multinationals for damage suffered by consumers, employees, and others who are exposed to risks created by these multinationals’ products and production processes. Another is the liability of businesses for greenwashing or of online marketplaces for unsafe consumer goods. To address such issues, Verbruggen uses comparative legal analyses and studies the influence of European law on national private law.
Verbruggen’s research themes are reflected in the various courses he teaches in the Bachelor’s and Master’s programs in Dutch Law and in the Global Law Bachelor’s program. He also serves as the current Program Director of the Global Law Bachelor.
Edited collections (open access)
New liabilities in global value chains (Special Issue with European Journal of Risk Regulation - Cambridge University Press 2022)
Methoden van systematische rechtspraakanalyse (Edited Volume on systematic case law analysis - Boomjuridisch 2021)
Regulating private regulators (Special Issue with European Review of Private Law - Kluwer Law International 2019)
Articles (open access)
The Union’s liability for failure to adjudicate within a reasonable time (with K. Kryla-Cudna, Common Market Law Review 2020)
Het PIP-schandaal voor het HvJ EU en de constitutionalisering van private regulering (Nederlands Juristenblad 2017)
Gorillas in the closet: Public and private actors in the enforcement of transnational private regulation (Regulation & Governance 2013)