prof. dr. M.M.T.A. (Marcel) Brus

Marcel Brus is professor of Public International Law, member of the board of the Department of Transboundary Legal Studies (Faculty of Law). , and .

Together with Prof. P. Westerman he was director of the research programme Transboundary Legal Studies of the Faculty of Law (until January 2023).

From 2016 - 2021 he was chair of the Department of Social Sciences at the University College Groningen (liberal arts and sciences).

Before his appointment on 1 September 2005 , he was senior lecturer in Public International Law at Leiden University , where he started his academic career in 1986 as Ph.D. researcher. He graduated from the University of Groningen in 1984 with a specialisation in International Law. After graduation he participated in various postgraduate courses, among others at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and at the Netherlands Institute for International Relations “Clingendael” in The Hague . In 1995 he defended his doctoral thesis “Third party dispute settlement in an interdependent world; developing a theoretical framework” cum laude at Leiden University .

Between 1997 and 2002 he taught part time at Oxford University when he combined his post at Leiden University with the  joint Leiden-Oxford Post in Public International Law. He has been active as research co-ordinator of the E.M. Meijers Institute of Legal Studies of the Leiden Law Faculty.

Currently he is a member of the editorial board of the Netherlands International Law Review. He was a member of the editorial board of the Leiden Journal of International Law (1989- 2009 and Editor-in-Chief from 2003-2005) and of the Netherlands Yearbook of International Law (1998-2008). 

From 2001-2013 he was a member (and in 2012-13 the chair) of the Advisory Committee on Questions of Public International Law (CAVV), advising the Dutch Government and Parliament. From 2003 to 2012 he was Hon. Secretary of the Royal Netherlands Society of International Law.

From 2012 to August 2019 he was Director of Studies of the International Law Association (ILA), and from 2003 to 2017 (from 2003 - 2012 as Honorary Secretary) board member of the Royal Netherlands Society of International Law .

From 2005 to 2020 he was Academic Director of the LLB programme International and European Law and of the LLM programmes Public International Law and International Human Rights Law at the University of Groningen.

His research concentrates on the interaction between international law and politics, the development of international law as a system of law, international environmental law and sustainable development, international investment law and international dispute settlement.