Welcome!
My name is Roland Pierik, I am Associate Professor of Legal Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam Law School. In addition, I am an associate member of the Philosophy Department in the Faculty of Humanities and affiliated with the PPLE Bachelor programme (Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics). Moreover, I am co-director of the Paul Scholten Centre for Jurisprudence, and one of two Deans for PhD students (Promovendi-decanen) of the Law School. From May 1st onwards I will be the Editor-in-Chief of The Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy.
My research interests concern the intersections of legal philosophy, political theory, law and public policy, with a special interest in contemporary liberal theories of justice and their application in plural societies and the globalizing world. My recent work focuses on human rights, the rule of law, religious diversity, and cosmopolitanism.
In 2013 I was affiliated to the Centre for the Study of Social Justice of Oxford University. Before that, I was a visiting scholar at University College London (2005), Columbia University (2004) and Ottawa University (1997-1998).
In 2015 I am affiliated as a "visiting fellow" to Ripple (Research in Political Philosophy in Leuven), a research institute at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Leuven.
Before I came to Amsterdam, I taught political theory at Radboud University Nijmegen and legal philosophy at Tilburg University.
Supervision of PhD students:
- Geoff Gordon, Innate Cosmopolitanism, (successfully defended April 2013). Since April 2013, Geoff is an Assistant Professor of International Legal Theory at VU University Amsterdam.
- Hadassa Noorda (Legal Philosophy, UvA, 2009–) on violent non-state actors in global armed conflict, with prof. Marc de Wilde. In September 2015, Hadassa will take up a Dworkin-Balzan Postdoctoral Fellowship at NYU.
- Tamar de Waal (Legal Philosophy, UvA, 2011–) on normative analyses of civic integration tests, with prof. Marc de Wilde and prof. Will Kymlicka..
- Lars Nickolson (Political Theory, UvA, 2013 –) on the governance of religious pluralism, with dr Marcel Maussen and prof. Jean Tillie.
Courses taught:
- Law, Justice and Morality (in the PPLE Bachelor programme) Study guide 2014/2015
- Human rights and multiculturalism (in the Law faculty) Study guide 2014/2015 (in Dutch)
- Legal philosophy and legal theory (in the Law faculty)
Recent publications and papers:
- "Mandatory Vaccination: an Unqualified Defence." Working paper, available at SSRN.com.
- "What is Neutrality?" Ratio Juris, (2014 vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 496–515), co-authored with Wibren van der Burg.
- "Een pleidooi voor een politieke theorie als Januskop." Res Publica (2014 vol. 56, no. 4, pp. 530-534).
- "Shared Responsibility in International Law: A Normative-Philosophical Analysis". SHARES Research Paper 43 (2014). Forthcoming in: André Nollkaemper & Dov Jacobs (eds.), Distribution of Responsibilities in International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
- “Human Rights and the Regulation of Transnational Clinical Trials” Political Studies (2014 Vol. 62, pre-print available; DOI: 10.1111/1467-9248.12134).
- "The Return of the Measles to the Low Countries: A Legal-Philosophical Exploration." (editorial) Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy (2014, Vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 103-107).
- "Dan toch maar een vaccinatieplicht?" Nederlands Juristenblad (2013 vol. 88, no. 40, pp. 2798-2807).
- "Het EHRM en het Europees rechtsstatelijke deficiet: Een analyse van de Lautsi-zaak," Nederlands Juristenblad (2012, no. 20. vol. 1170, pp. 1382-1389).
- “State Neutrality and the Limits of Religious Symbolism,” in Jeroen Temperman (Ed.) The Lautsi Papers: Multidisciplinary Reflections on Religious Symbols in the Public School Classroom, (Leiden, Boston: BRILL/Martinus Nijhoff), pp. 201-218.
- “Do We Have a Negative Duty Towards the Global Poor? Thomas Pogge on Global Justice” in Jean-Christophe Merle (ed.), Spheres of Global Justice. Dordrecht: Springer (2013), ch. 48, pp. 595-610.
- “The Neutral State and the Mandatory Crucifix,” Religion & Human Rights (2011 Vol. 6 no. 3, pp. 259–264, co-authored with Wibren van der Burg).
Recent contributions to public debates (2014, all in Dutch):
- "Debat over het generaal pardon van 2007, tweederangs burgerschap en identiteit." IKONHUIS NPO2 tv, 16 november 2014.
- "Promoveren is geen werk maar studie.” NRC-Handelsblad, 28 augustus, 2014, opiniepagina, samen met Ingrid Robeyns.
- “Toegang tot kinderopvang, dan eerst vaccineren.” NRC-Handelsblad, 19 maart 2014, opiniepagina.
- “Discussies over mensenrechten houd je altijd.” Parool, 1 februari 2014, wetenschapspagina.
- “Geert Wilders heeft de macht over het debat uit zijn handen laten vallen.” Blog op stukroodvlees.nl, maart 2014.
- “De hoogste tijd voor een vaccinatieplicht.” Blog op stukroodvlees.nl, februari 2014.
Core publications:
- Cosmopolitanism in Context: Perspectives from International Law and Political Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2010, co-editor: Wouter Werner). With contributions from Thomas Pogge, Simon Caney, Nicholas Tsagourias, Kok-Chor Tan, Ellen Hey, Thomas Spijkerboer, Tomer Broude, Victor Peskin, and Jorge Valades. @Amazon.com Paperback available in Sept. 2013.
- “Collective Responsibility and National Responsibility”, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy (CRISPP), (2008, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 465-483).
- “Resources versus Capabilities: Social Endowments in Egalitarian Theory," Political Studies, (2007, Vol. 55 No. 1, pp. 133-152, co-authored with Ingrid Robeyns).
- “Reparations for Luck Egalitarians,” Journal of Social Philosophy (2006, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 423–440).
- “Western Policies on Child Labor Abroad," Ethics & International Affairs, (2006, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 193-218, Co-authored with Mijke Houwerzijl).
- “Conceptualizing Cultural Groups and Cultural Difference: The Social Mechanism-Approach,” Ethnicities (2004, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 523-544).
A recent copy of my CV (September 2014), can be found here.
Updated: September 2014
