About

I am an independent, practising lawyer, member of the Belgian Bar (year of call: 1999; of counsel, non-practising, 1994-1999). I practiced for 21 years in international legal networks (SJ Berwin; Andersen Legal: Dibb, Lupton, Alsop; DLA Piper), before I set up on my own in 2015.  I offer advice independently, in the areas of conflict of laws /international dispute resolution; International and EU regulatory law (particularly environment, energy and new technologies); and International and EU economic and trade law.

Many of my clients are fellow lawyers as well as international law firms, seeking expert assistance in the areas mentioned above.

For a full overview of my profile, activities and recent case assignments, please refer to the ‘Mini me‘ page on this blog. My full CV is here.

I am also an academic, full professor (‘professor Ordinarius /gewoon hoogleraar’) in the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), and visiting professor at Monash University, Melbourne; King’s College, London; a senior visiting fellow at Melbourne University Law School and formerly also visiting professor at the China-EU Shool of Law in Beijing.

I have expertise in private international law /conflict of laws (European, Belgian; and comparative); WTO law; EU and international environmental law; EU economic law; and EU Institutional Law.

I am the author of i.a. European Private International Law, a Handbook on European conflict of laws, published in 2024 in fourth edition (1st ed. 2013; 2nd ed. 2016; 3rd ed. 2021) by Hart /Bloomsbury (also available on Amazon – if you are EU-based, buying from your local bookstore or Amazon with .de, .fr or .nl extension will save you customs and handling headaches). A Chinese, Mandarin translation of the first ed. was published with Lawpress.

With Leonie Reins I edited the commentary on the Paris Agreement (Edward Elgar, April 2021; 2nd ed. forthcoming 2025). My co-authored handbook (with Leonie Reins) on EU environmental law was published by Edward Elgar in February 2017 (2nd ed. forthcoming 2024; see online review by Phillip Taylor here) and Oxford University Press published the second edition of my Handbook of EU Waste Law in mid March 2015. The Research Handbook on Environment, Health and the WTO which I co-edited with Denise Prévost and with editorial help by Leonie Reins was published by Edward Elgar in May 2013. With Wim Vandenberghe and Leonie Reins I edited a research collection on Climate Change Mitigation Law, released February 2015.

This blog reports on recent developments in all areas listed above. It is not meant to be complete, evidently. It simply highlights recent developments which are relevant to my practice, teaching and research. For snap messages on developments which I am not likely to report on the blog, follow me on Twitter @GAVClaw .

Click for my CV and please refer to here for surface mail, room in college and mobile number.

READING THE BLOG WITH THE PIL HANDBOOK

A substantial part of the blog relates to Conflict of Laws /private international law. Following the example of Steve Peers, I have from 26 February 2017 onwards added tags to the postings to assist readers of the 2nd, then 3rd and 4th ed. (posts after December 2020 refer to the third ed.; those after December 2023 to the 4th). Thank you, Steve, for the idea.

Geert van Calster.