Ron van der Horst

Ron is currently in the third year of his second Bachelor’s degree programme in Law, and on his way to a generous cum laude. He already completed his first Bachelor’s programme, in International and European Law, summa cum laude. As part of that Bachelor’s programme, Ron wrote a thesis, for which he received top marks (10/10), and which formed the basis for an article in the European Journal of International Law. In short, Ron was awarded extremely high marks in his regular study programmes, which he also combined with the Honours College (45 extra ECTS). As if this were not enough, in recent years Ron also developed a range of other activities. For instance, he worked repeatedly as student assistant with teaching duties (various course units within the Bachelor’s in International and European Law), financial duties (in the team Corporate Control UG that is responsible for coordinating the institution-wide planning and control cycles) and legal duties (at General and Legal Affairs—ABJZ)), and he was also active outside the University. He completed a placement in The Hague at the Office of the Legal Advisor of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and in New York at the Codification Division of the Office of Legal Affairs, United Nations. The latter was partly made possible thanks to Ron winning a Holland Scholarship, and while in New York, he worked, among other things, on a preliminary version of a UN resolution on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism that was ultimately adopted. Ron has also worked as an assistant in a research study on international criminal law, published by Matthew Gillet in the Michigan Journal of International Law. Finally, I would like to mention that Ron and his friends cycled the Giro di Kika, raising €14,000 for the fight against childhood cancer.

The letters of recommendation included in Ron’s application were highly commendable, and he gave an excellent pitch on the importance of international law; at least the framework within which parties can and want to talk to each other.