We are a group of legal researchers from South Africa, Belgium, and The Netherlands who want to further explore how economically and socially weaker parties are protected in Private International Law. Thanks to funding from the Belgium journal Tijdschrift voor Privaatrecht, we are able to organise a conference for young researchers from the three countries listed above. Participants of the conference will present their work in either Afrikaans or Dutch, promoting cooperative and comparative research between speakers of these related languages and countries.
While we are all affiliated with universities and research institutes, this conference is not directly co-financed by them.
Team
Michiel Poesen
Organiser
Michiel Poesen is a postdoctoral research fellow at the KU Leuven Research Council. His project explores the interaction and tensions between conflicting economic and social aims in EU civil and commercial private international law. He holds a PhD from KU Leuven. Michiel is a fixed-term lecturer of International Business Law in the Leuven LL.M. programme, and a visiting lecturer in private international law at Maastricht University, ELTE Budapest, and Hasselt University.
Benedikt Schmitz
Organiser
Benedikt Schmitz is a PhD researcher in private international law and consumer law at the University of Groningen. His research focusses on the coordination between private international law and substantive consumer law. What influence does the public interest of consumer protection have on consumer contracts? Next to conducting his doctoral research, he also teaches courses on comparative contract law, tort law, and EU consumer PIL.
Robin Cupido
Organiser
Robin Cupido is a lecturer and PhD researcher in the Department of Private Law at the University of Cape Town. Robin has previously worked as a lecturer at the University of Johannesburg where she taught Private International Law, Law of Succession, and contributed to the teaching of the LLM module on International Commercial Law. Robin has also lectured at the University of Central Lancashire (Mauritius), where she taught a variety of subjects on both the undergraduate and postgraduate level.