Kees Bastmeijer

Kees Bastmeijer (1966) is Professor of Nature Conservation and Water Law at the Tilburg Law School (Tilburg University-The Netherlands). His research relates to international, European, and domestic environmental law, with a special emphasis on the role of law in protecting nature. He has a special interest in the legal developments relating to the Polar Regions (the Antarctic and the Arctic). Because he has become increasingly aware of the limitations of law in reaching nature conservation objectives, he relates his research more and more to knowledge and research in other disciplines, including ecology, sociology, anthropology and economy.

Kees Bastmeijer is the author of The Antarctic Environmental Protocol and its Domestic Legal Implementation, (dissertation, The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2003), co-editor (with Prof. Timo Koivurova) of Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment: Theory and Practice (Leiden: Brill/Martinus Nijhoff, 2008), and is currently editing the book The Role of International, European and National Law in Protecting Wilderness in Europe for Cambridge University Press (forthcoming 2015). He is the author of numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters (see publication list below). He is a member of the editorial boards of the Yearbook of Polar Law (Brill/Martinus Nijhoff) and of the Polar Journal (Taylor & Francis/Routledge). He is Member of the Humanities and Social Sciences Expert Group of the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research. As an advisor to the Dutch government, Kees Bastmeijer has been participating in the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings since 1992. He is a board member of the IUCN Netherlands Committee. Since 1 January 2014, in parallel to his professorship, he has been co- program leader of the Outreaching Honors Program of the Tilburg University.

Based on his academic work, Kees Bastmeijer aims to inform and advice policy makers and the general public through membership of advisory committees, contract research for governments and NGOs, as well as through popular publications and contributions in the general media.