Wendy Schrama appointed professor of Family Law, Law of Persons and Juvenile Law

On 1 August 2012, Wendy Schrama LLM became professor by special appointment of Family Law, Law of Persons and Juvenile Law at the Faculty of Law, a chair endowed by the Stichting Personen-, familie- en jeugdrecht [Family Law, Law of Persons and Juvenile Law Foundation]. The chair will form part of the Department of Private Law and Notary Law.

The social significance of this wide field of law is enormous. It covers aspects such as divorce, marriage and matrimonial property law, alimony, the law of descent and parental authority, foster and step-parenthood, law on surnames, couples living together without being married, protection and advocacy of disabled adults and the related civil procedure law.

Wendy Schrama (Helmond, 1973) graduated with distinction in 1997 from Utrecht University, where she also gained her PhD with a thesis entitled ‘De niet-huwelijkse samenleving in het Nederlandse en Duitse recht’ [Non-married cohabitation in Dutch and German law]. She was awarded the Dutch-German Lawyers Prize 2005 for her thesis.

Schrama also works as a senior researcher for the WODC (Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Documentatiecentrum, Research and Documentation Centre) where she conducts and supervises empirical-legal research in the field of civil law. Further s he is an honorary associate professor at UCERF, Molengraaff Institute for Private Law, Utrecht University. She previously worked there as a lecturer/researcher in the section for international private law, comparative law and family law, and as associate professor in family law. In 2009-2010 she was guest professor in a TPR chair at the University of Antwerp.