The Williams Institute Welcomes the 2014 McDonald/Wright Visiting Chair of Law: Kees Waaldijk

The Williams Institute Welcomes the 2014 McDonald/Wright Visiting Chair of Law: Kees Waaldijk The Williams Institute is thrilled to welcome Kees Waaldijk as the 2014 McDonald/Wright Visiting Chair of Law. Kees comes to the Institute from the Hague Campus of Leiden University, The Netherlands. Kees is professor of Comparative Sexual Orientation Law at Leiden Law School, a sponsored chair he has held since 2011. Professor Waaldijk obtained his Master’s Degree in Law at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1982 and his doctoral degree at Maastricht University.  Professor Waaldijk has worked for Leiden Law School as a lecturer in jurisprudence from 1996 until 2001, and as head of Ph.D. studies until 2011. Professor Waaldijk also has been a senior visiting research fellow at the University of Edinburgh (1989), a visiting lecturer at the University of Lancaster (1989) and a visiting professor at UC Hastings College of the Law (2000).  He has also taught in summer programs of several law schools in the United States. Professor Waaldijk has advised many organizations on issues of law and sexuality and has had an active role in several test cases and legislative initiatives, especially regarding the legal recognition of same-sex couples.  He was a member of the Dutch Government’s Commission of legal experts advising on the opening up of civil marriage to same-sex couples (1996-1997) and a member of the Dutch Council for Family Affairs (1994-1999).  He co-edited the annual collection of opinions of the Dutch Equal Treatment Commission (1999-2007).  He has advised on evaluation studies commissioned by the Dutch government about the workings of the General Equal Treatment Act (1999), of the Law on Registered Partnership (1999 and 2006) and of the Law on the Opening Up of Marriage (2006). Professor Waaldijk is a founding member of the European Commission on Sexual Orientation Law. He has served as an adviser to the annual report on State-Sponsored Homophobia of the International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association since 2011.  He was in charge of a study for the European Union on legislation prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in employment (2002-2004).  With funding from the European Union (FP7), he is now in charge of a comparative research project on the legal content of family formats available to same-sex and/or different-sex couples. His publications (online at www.law.leidenuniv.nl/waaldijk) include articles on the opening up of marriage and on the gradual legal recognition of sexual orientation in international and comparative law, books on European sexual orientation law, and an inaugural lecture on The Right to Relate.  His work has not only been published in English and Dutch, but also in French, Spanish, Italian, Czech and Chinese.   The Williams Institute is proud to host a special presentation by Professor Waaldijk titled “More progress, more stagnation, more setbacks: a global picture of the recognition of same-sex orientation.” on Wednesday April 23, 2014 at 12:15 p.m. at UCLA School of Law. For more information please contact Randy Bunnao at Bunnao@law.ucla.edu.