Roorda, Dr Berend

Berend Roorda is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, specializing in freedom of assembly. He is also an expert in the right of association, constitutional restriction systems and the enforcement of public order.

Roorda has worked as a lecturer in the Department of Legal Methods since 2012. In 2019, Roorda was voted Lecturer of the Year at the UG.

Roorda is also a researcher in the Centre for Public Order and Safety, focusing on the field of tension between the constitutional right to demonstrate and the enforcement of public order. In 2016, he completed a thesis entitled 'Het recht om te demonstreren' (The right to demonstrate). Since then, he has regularly been asked for his expert opinion on the protests by farmers (and the measures taken to prohibit them), Zwarte Piet activists and the demonstrations against the COVID-19 restrictions. ‘Critical voices are important’, says Roorda. ‘If I were to join a demonstration, it would be in support of the right to demonstrate’.

Previously in the news (mostly in Dutch)

• Researchers explain right to demonstrate to all and sundry
• Met potten en pannen in actie op de Grote Markt in Groningen tegen racisme en fascisme: ‘We zitten op een kantelpunt’ (Protests against racism and fascism with pots and pans on the Grote Markt in Groningen: 'We've reacherd tipping point')
• Recht op Rellen? Pointer (The Right to Riot? Pointer)
• Strijden voor het demonstratierecht (Fighting for the right to demonstrate)
• Hoe nu verder na ‘heftigste rellen in 40 jaar’? (How do you move on after 'the worst riots in 40 years'?)
• Politicias, mayors and police condemn rioters as arrest total hits 184
• Demonstreren in coronatijd: ‘Het kan veel creatiever dan samen op een pleintje’ (Protesting during the coronavirus pandemic: 'There are more creative ways than gathering on a square')
• ‘Boeren mogen best demonstreren, als ze met de fiets of trein komen’ ('Farmers are entitled to protest, as long as they come by bike or train')
• Waarom bu rgemeesters niet ingrijpen als demontranten geen afstand houden (Why mayors do not intervene when protesters do not keep their distance)
• Protestjaar 2019: Boeren, docenten, verplegers, bouwers, agenten en klimaatactivisten (ze gingen allemaal de straat op) (Protests in 2019: Farmers, teachers, nurses, builders, police officers and climate activists (they all took to the streets))

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