Jan M. Smits (born 1967) is a Dutch law professor. He is the dean of the Faculty of Law at Maastricht University, where he is also professor of European Private Law and director of the Maastricht European Private Law Institute. Furthermore, he is a visiting professor of Comparative Legal Studies in the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

. Smits was born in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

in 1967. Between 1986 and 1991 he studied law at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

and at the University of Poitiers. In 1995 he obtained his PhD degree from Leiden University on a thesis about the foundations of contractual liability. He then taught at Stellenbosch University and in Tilburg and Maastricht. In 1999, he was appointed to the Chair of European Private Law at Maastricht University, a position he temporarily left between 2008 and 2010 to become professor of European Private Law and Comparative Law at Tilburg University. In October 2010 he returned to Maastricht to found the Maastricht European Private Law Institute (M-EPLI). Smits is known for his critical view of the European harmonisation process; he is also a fierce believer in legal science as an international discipline. He held visiting positions at a number of foreign institutions, including

Tulane University Law School Tulane University Law School is the law school of Tulane University. It is located on Tulane's Uptown campus in New Orleans, Louisiana. Established in 1847, it is the 12th oldest law school in the United States. In addition to the usual common ...

, the University of Leuven, the

University of Liège The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301 ...

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

and the

Penn State Dickinson School of Law Penn State Dickinson Law, formerly Dickinson School of Law, is a public law school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It is one of two separately accredited law schools of The Pennsylvania State University. According to Penn State Dickinson Law's 2019 A ...

. Jan Smits is a member of th
Ius Commune Research School
He is a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

since 2010. It was announced in July 2017 that Smits will succeed Professor Dr. Hildegard Schneider as new dean of Maastricht University's Faculty of Law on 1 December 2017.

References

External links

Works by Jan Smits in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Publications on SSRN

Bepress page

Personal homepage

Website of the Maastricht European Private Law Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smits, Jan M. 1967 births Living people Dutch legal scholars Leiden University alumni Academic staff of Maastricht University Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Leiden