Doctoral defence Christophe Maes

On Friday, 18th of September 2020 at 5 p.m., Christophe MAES succesfully defended his doctoral thesis and supplementary theses at the KU Leuven Faculty of Law, obtaining the degree of doctor in law.

The public defence took place in close circle and via livestream. The summary of the research (in Dutch) is available here, as well as the slides. For a recording of the public defense (in Dutch), please contact the administrative office of the Leuven Centre for Public Law.

The title of the doctoral thesis is: ‘The notion of sovereignty in the Belgian Constitution of 1831. A legal historical research on the meaning of sovereignty with regard to the organisation of the Belgian state power’.

The supervisor is Prof. Dr. Stefan Sottiaux. The co-supervisor is Prof. Dr. Raf Geenens. The other members of the examining committee are Em. Prof. Dr. Jacques Herbots (KU Leuven) Em. Prof. Dr. Els Witte (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Prof. Dr. Annelien de Dijn (Universiteit Utrecht) and Prof. Dr. Christian Behrendt (Université de Liège and KU Leuven).

Christophe Maes also defended two supplementary theses:

• The Flemish government should invest more in the integration of (educative, narrative and so-called ‘serious’) games in the educational system. E.g., it could encourage the development of videogames that address social issues and topics, adapted to the curricula, on the one hand, and which contain gaming experiences that may appeal to a broader gaming public on the other hand. In this respect there should be more stimuli for international coproductions.
• The leave for fathers and co-mothers should be obligatory. It should also be extended to a minimum of 20 days, without income loss and irrespective of the professional statute.

Christophe MAES was born in Antwerp on February 10th, 1984. In 2007 he obtained his Master’s degree in law (KU Leuven) and in 2010 his Master’s degree in history (KU Leuven). He joined the Leuven Bar Association in 2010. Since 2015 he works as a PhD student at KU Leuven’s Department of Public Law, the actual Leuven Centre for Public Law. As of the 1st of November 2020 he will be working as a postdoctoral researcher on a project under supervision of Prof. Dr. Stefan Sottiaux and Prof. Dr. Raf Geenens, entitled “Between constitutional and national identity: the Belgian case as a testing ground for the role of collective identity in European law”.