Verschuuren's research mainly focuses on the role of international and EU environmental law in legal practice. Current research focuses on climate change. As of 2015, Verschuuren primarily researches the impact of climate change on agriculture and vice versa, first with a view to developing a regulatory framework for climate smart agriculture, later with a focus on the much needed broad and deep agricultural and food transition to become more sustainable. In 2015, he was awarded a two year Marie Sklodowska Curie Global Fellowship on this topic. In 2016, he spent 12 months at the ACCEL for the first year of this project, primarily with the aim to assess the experiences with Australia?s carbon farming initiative. This project also comprised empirical research, mostly through interviewing stakeholders (governments, carbon agents, farmers organisations, banks etc.). In 2017, he returned to Europe, to see whether and how similar instruments aimed at stimulating farmers to convert to climate smart practices can be integrated in the EU's climate and agricultural policies. In that year he also received the prestigious senior scholarship prize of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. From 2020-2023, Verschuuren researched the integration of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions into the EU emissions trading system, under a grant by the Netherlands Research Council. Verschuuren is involved in the Tilburg Law School research project 'Constitutionalizing the Anthropocene' (2019-2026). His current research looks into the role of regulation in setting into motion a transition towards more sustainable food systems, for example through moving away from animal-source foods towards plant based food and cultivated meat and dairy. 

Verschuuren has written numerous publications in the field on environmental law, include many articles in outstanding refereed journals throughout the world.

Some of his research themes: Climate change, adaptation, coastal adaptation, geo-engineering, climate change and agriculture/food security, climate change and armed conflicts, biodiversity, European and International Environmental Law, Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, Wild Birds and Habitats Directives, Wetlands Convention, precautionary principle, codification, globalisation and the environment, corporate social responsibility and environmental law, water law, transboundary cooperation

In 1999, Verschuuren obtained the position of full professor of International and European Environmental Law at Tilburg University, the faculty of the Tilburg Sustainability Center and the Center for Transboundary Legal Development. His research primarily focuses on climate law, in particular on adaptation. In 2016, Verschuuren was a Marie Sklodowska Curie fellow at the Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law at the University of Sydney. There, he assessed the experiences with Australia's carbon farming initiative. This project also comprised empirical research, mostly through interviewing stakeholders (governments, carbon agents, farmers organisations, banks etc.). In 2017, Verschuuren returned to Europe, to see whether and how similar instruments aimed at stimulating farmers to convert to climate smart practices can be integrated in the EU's climate and agricultural policies, and thus to develop a regulatory framework for climate smart agriculture. In that year, he was awarded the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law senior scholarship prize. In 2020-2023, Verschuuren worked on a project sponsored by the Netherlands Research Council on integrating agricultural greenhouse gas emissions into the EU emissions trading system.

Verschuuren also is or has been a visiting professor at the universities of Connecticut, North West/Potchefstroom (South Africa), Leuven (Belgium) and Malta. Since 2008, Verschuuren has been appointed as "extraordinary professor" at the North West University in South Africa. In the past, Verschuuren was a member of the Dutch national advisory council for the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM Raad, 2005), and the secretary of the Evaluation Committee Environmental Management Act (Evaluatiecommissie Wet milieubeheer, ECWM, 2000-2003). He is a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law and the Academy of Environmental Law, both of IUCN. From 2008 until 2010, Verschuuren acted as the vice dean research of the Tilburg Law School and as the director of its graduate school.

International Environmental Law

Climate Change Law

Research Design for Transnational Public Lawyers

Public Interest Litigation

Human Rights and Business

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PhD (co-) supervision: 26 completed: 1. Rob van Gestel (Self-regulation and environmental management in industry, 2000), 2. Kees Bastmeijer (The Antarctic Protocol and its legal implementation at the domestic level, 2002), 3. Tom de Wit (Environmental Information in the product cycle, 2005)), 4. Katinka Jesse (Foundations of Environmental Impact Assessment, 2008), 5. Timon Oudenaarden (The ideal of biodiversity in law, 2008), 6. Anel du Plessis (Fulfilment of South Africa’s Constitutional Environmental Right in the Local Government Sphere, NWU - 2009), 7. Steve Kuchta (Fundamental Rights & Environmental Justice: Identifying Rights-based Environmental Protection in Europe and the United States, 2010), 8. Karin Baakman (Effectiveness of biodiversity related conventions, 2011), 9. Sayed Zeidan (State responsibility and liability for environmental damage caused by nuclear accidents, 2012), 10. Zhou Chen (Technology transfer under the UNFCCC to China, 2013), 11. Peter Lawrence (Future generations and climate law, 2013), 12. Jesse Reynolds (Towards a legal framework for climate engineering research, 2014), 13. Mariya Gromilova (Climate induced migration, 2015), 14. Niel Lubbe (transfrontier environmental governance in SADC, NWU - 2016), 15. Louis Kotzé (global environmental constitutionalism in the Anthropocene, 2017), 16. Jean Claude Ashukem (rights based approach to foreign agro-investment in Africa, NWU - 2016), 17. Desta Gebremichael Gidey (The Role of Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment in Ethiopia, 2017), 18. Andrew Blackmore (The Trusteeship doctrine in South African biodiversity law, 2018), 19. Merhatbeb Teklemedhn Gebregiorgs (Greening the Ethiopian Federal Tax System, 2018), 20. Melissa Lewis (implementation throughout the flyway of the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement, 2019, cum laude), 21. Yuan Yang (preventing environmental damage by offshore oil installations, 2019), 22. Angela van der Berg (sustainable cities and planning law, 2019), 23. Anna Berti Suman (the role of citizen sensing in environmental policy-making, 2020), 24. Miriam Jafrudi (regulating water scarcity under climate change in transboundary river basins, 2020), 25. Henny Coetzee (water-energy nexus in South Africa, 2024), 26. Nairita Roy Chaudhuri (rural climate change adaptation India, 2024).

PhD supervision current (7): Joris van Laarhoven (urban climate change adaptation), Christina Fernandez (international fisheries regimes and climate change), Ayobami Aluko (the right to a healthy environment in Nigeria), Rens Claerhoudt (towards legal protection of parasites), Tim Stork (environmental peacebuilding), Julius Veenstra (just climate transition for future generations), Rosanna Anderson (climate justice under EU law)