Maurice Adams studied law and philosophy of law/legal theory at the Universities of Maastricht (the Netherlands), Leuven (Belgium) and Oxford (UK). He completed a doctorate in law at the University of Leuven under the supervision of M. Van Hoecke en H. Cousy.

Since 1997 he was professor of law at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, mainly working in the field of jurisprudence and comparative law. In 2007 he was appointed full professor of general jurisprudence at Tilburg University (The Netherlands).

Between 2013 and 2019 he was also professor of democratice governance and rule of law (vfund chair) at Tilburg Law School, and between 2011-2018 visiting professor at the law school of the University of Leuven (Belgium). In 2014 he was Henry Morris lecturer at Chicago-Kent College of Law, and in the spring semester of 2018 TPR visiting chair at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. In May/June 2023 he is visiting professor at the Universitas Indonesia (Jakarta).

In his current research he has a particular interest in the relation between constitutional law and politics. and in comparative legal research methodology.

He published, together with J. Griffiths and H. Weyers, a large scale comparative study about the regulation of euthanasia: Euthanasia and Law in Europe, Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2008, 598 p. And also, together with J. Bomhoff and N. Huls as co-editors, a book on the argumentative practice of highest courts: The Legitimacy of highest courts? rulings, The Hague/Cambridge, TMC Asser Press/Cambridge University Press, 2009, 478 p. In recent years volumes appeared on Practice and Theory in Comparative Law, Cambridge University Press (edited with J. Bomhoff), Judging Europe's Judges. The Legitimacy of the Case Law of the European Court of Justice, Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2013 (edited met H. de Waele, J. Meeusen en G. Straetmans), Method and Culture in Comparative Law, Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2014 (edited with D. Heirbaut), Constitutionalism and Rule of Law. Between Idealism and Realism, Cambridge University Press 2017 (edited with A. Meuwese and E.M.H. Hirsch Ballin), and Research Collection on Method and Methodology in Comparative Law, Edward Elgar 2017 (with J. Husa and M. Oderkerk). In 2019 he edited, together with Ronald Janse, a special issue of The Hague Journal on the Rule of law (Rule of Law Decay). In the fall of 2021 an edited volume was published (with prof. Mark Van Hoecke (Queen Mary London)) on comparative methods in law, humanities and the social sciences (Edward Elgar publishing). In 2018 he published, in Dutch, a large scale and much cited article on how to do comparative legal research ("Structuur, praktijk en theorie van rechtsvergelijkend onderzoek").

Maurice is one of the founders and currently co-chair of the editorial team of the 'blog' forum of the main Dutch website on rule of law challenges: www.nederlandrechtsstaat.nl

He also functioned in an advisory capacity for Belgian parliament on the regulation of the end-of-life and on legislative evaluation, and also for the House of Lords in the United Kingdom. He has been editor in chief (2003-2008) of the journal Rechtsfilosofie en Rechtstheorie, and is an elected member of the Académie Internationale de droit comparé.

Maurice Adams was vice-dean (education) at Tilburg Law School and Chair of the Department of Public law and Jurisprudence.

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