Gert Jan Geertjes awarded 2023 Meijers Prize and Van Wersch Springplank Prize
Traditionally, at the beginning of each new calendar year, Leiden Law School awards the Meijers Prizes for the best article in the previous year for each Faculty research programme.
These prizes are awarded alternately to PhD students and to university lecturers who completed their PhD no longer than five years ago. The prize is €500 which the winner can spend on their research. This year’s award ceremony took place on 10 January 2023, at which the prizes were divided among university lecturers.
The Meijers Prize for the best article in the research programme ‘The Legitimacy and Effectiveness of Law & Governance in a World of Multilevel Jurisdictions’ went to lecturer in constitutional law Gert Jan Geertjes for his article ‘Machtsverdeling, Grondwet en conventie’ (on division of power, the Constitution and convention) (Ars Aequi 2022, afl. 4, p. 315-325). The article was based on the PhD thesis Staatsrecht en conventie in Nederland en het Verenigd Koninkrijk (Zutphen: Uitgeverij Paris 2021) (Law and Conventions in the Constitutions of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) for which Geertjes received his doctorate on 2 September 2021 in Leiden.
The eight winners of the Meijers Prizes were also nominated for the Van Wersch Springplank Prize, comprising €10,000 for scholarly publications by active and talented researchers in the field of legal research. The jury, composed of Professor Joanne van der Leun, Professor Jannemieke Ouwerkerk, Professor Nico Schrijver, Professor Carel Stolker and Professor Rein Wesseling (UvA), supported by certain representatives from the so-called ‘Van Wersch-clan’ (including the namesake of the prize, Mr Leo van Wersch) awarded this prize to Gert Jan Geertjes. Geertjes will use the prize to further broaden and internationalise his research.
An overview of all winners of the 2023 Meijers Prizes and more information about the Van Springplank Fund, which also provides a Springplank Prize of €10,000 for young researchers in the medical/pharmaceutical sciences, is available here. The recording of the award ceremony is available via this link (from 52:30).