Belgium

Brief description of the legal entity

The Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) is a multicultural institution which has 8 faculties and a range of schools and institutes. It provides academic tuition in all disciplines and study cycles, and is also a major research centre. ULB’s Institute of European Studies was created in 1963 and is one of the oldest and leading research and teaching centres dedicated to the study of the European Union. It is a ‘Jean Monnet Centre of excellence’, with a highly selective recruiting process and an international multidisciplinary research network. It has delivered over 4,000 specialisation diplomas in European law, economy and politics over the past forty years, and many of its alumni occupy official posts in government and in the institutions of the EU. The Institute is also a Research and Higher Studies Centre.

Short profile of the team members

Pierre-François Docquir, the scientist in charge for the research team of Université Libre de Bruxelles, is a post-doc researcher at the Centre Perelman for Legal Philosophy and an associate researcher at ULB’s Centre for Communication and Information Law, where he teaches human rights law. He received his law degree cum laude from the Université Catholique de Louvain in 1997 and a Diplôme d’études approfondies (Masters degree) in law summa cum laude from ULB in 2006. He received his PhD in law from ULB in January 2009. His doctoral dissertation is entitled ‘Freedom of expression in the worldwide communication networks: proposals for a theory of the right of access to privately-owned public spaces’ (forthcoming publication). He previously worked as an attorney on the Brussels’ Bar and currently serves as Vice-President of the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA). He is a member of the editorial board of the Revue du droit des technologies de l’information (RDTI) and runs a blog dedicated to freedom of expression. His main areas of interest include freedom of speech, comparative law, national and comparative media legal and regulatory frameworks, cyberlaw and democratic internet regulation.

Title: Dr.
Position: Senior Researcher at the Centre Perelman for Legal Philosophy
Tel: + 32 2 650 48 79
Fax: + 32 2 650 40 07
E-mail: pierre-francois.docquir@ulb.ac.be

Address: Université Libre de Bruxelles
6, avenue Paul Héger (C.P. 132)
B-1050 Brussels
Belgium

Emmanuelle Bribosia is Professor of European Law, Anti-discrimination Law and Constitutional Law at the Institute for European Studies (IEE) and the Law Faculty of ULB. From 2007, she has been appointed Director of the legal department of the IEE. She received her law degree summa cum laude from ULB in 1994 and a PhD on the protection of human rights in European law with summa cum laude and the congratulations of the jury in 2000. Her main fields of interest include the role of the judiciary in human rights protection, equality and the management of cultural and religious diversity. Currently, she is the Belgian expert in the European network of legal experts in the non-discrimination field of the European Commission. Additionally, she formed part of the JURISTRAS European network, which studied the relationship between judicial review of human rights at the supranational level and domestic politics and policies in Europe.

E-mail: ebribo@ulb.ac.be

Isabelle Rorive is Professor in Comparative Law, Anti-discrimination Law and Methodology of Law at the Law School of ULB. She received her law degree summa cum laude from ULB in 1994, a Master of Studies in Legal Research (M.St.) in 1998 from the University of Oxford and a PhD on comparative jurisprudence with summa cum laude and the congratulations of the jury from ULB in 2000. In 2001-2002, she was a Research Fellow at the Programme in Comparative Media Law & Policy (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies) of the University of Oxford and a Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College (University of Oxford). Her main fields of interest include the role of the judiciary in human rights protection, equality, the management of cultural and religious diversity, freedom of expression and internet regulation. Currently, she is also the expert coordinator of the religion ground in the European network of legal experts in the non-discrimination field of the European Commission. Additionally, she was a partner of the JURISTRAS European network.

E-mail: irorive@ulb.ac.be

Benoît Frydman is Professor in Legal Theory, Natural Law and Methodology of Law at the Law Faculty of ULB and Professor at the European Academy of Legal Theory. He is the Director of the Perelman Centre for Legal Philosophy. He received his law degree summa cum laude from ULB in 1988, a Masters degree in Economic Law summa cum laude from ULB in 1989, a degree in philosophy from the University of Paris X in 1993, and a PhD in law with summa cum laude and the congratulations of the jury from ULB in 1999. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Programme in Comparative Media Law & Policy (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies) of the University of Oxford in 2001-2002, a recurrent Visiting Lecturer at the European Master in Human Rights and Democratisation (Venice, Italy) from 2002 to 2006, a recurrent lecturer at the Summer program on Legal Responses to New Communication Technologies, New York Cardozo School of Law at Oxford University (2001-2004) and at the Open Society Institute Media Law Advocates Training Programme at Oxford University (2002-2004). He served as a member of the Belgian Superior Council for Justice (2004-2008). He runs the research program on Global Law of the Perelman Centre for Legal Philosophy and has directed and co-directed several nationally and European-funded research projects, including an FP7 research project on Humanitarian Law and the European Union. His fields of interest include cyberlaw, freedom of speech, civil society rights, and models of regulation and transformations of contemporary law.

E-mail: bflydman@ulb.ac.be

Bart Van Besien is a researcher at the Centre Perelman for Legal Philosophy. He studied law and history at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and obtained a Master’s degree in European law at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. During his law studies, he participated in an exchange program with the Universitat de Barcelona. After graduating, he specialised in intellectual property law and internet law, and worked as an attorney in Belgium and as an in-house legal counsel in Ireland. He currently writes his PhD thesis in the field of media law. Other fields of interest are internet law, intellectual property law, legal history, human rights and philosophy of law.

E-mail: bvbesien@ulb.ac.be