Reijer Passchier (Haarlem, 28 August 1987) PhD LLM LLB (Leiden University) is an Assistant Professor in Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden University. He is also a Professor of Digitalisation and the Democratic Constitutional State at the Open University.

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Curriculum vitae

Reijer’s current research focuses on questions surrounding digitisation and constitutional democracy. His most recent book is ‘Artificiële intelligentie en de rechtsstaat’ (Artificial intelligence and the constitutional state). For his article 'Digitalisering en de (dis)balans binnen de trias politica’ (digitisation and the (dis)balance in the separation of powers), Leiden Law School awarded him the Meijers prize for the best published article from each faculty research programme and the Van Wersch Springplank prize for the best juridical article published in 2020. 

Reijer is an advocate of interdisciplinary and historical approaches to constitutional issues, as such approaches allow us to better understand how constitutional norms actually emerge, operate and eventually decay and how they shape the real world. He has published, amongst other peer-reviewed journals, in the Cambridge Journal of Comparative and International Law, the Theory and Practice of Legislation, the Dutch Journal of Constitutional Law and the Buffalo Law Review. He presented papers in places like Durham, Milan, Austin, New Haven (Yale University) and on Procida, Italy. Furthermore, Reijer co-organized a number of academic conferences about topical themes in Dutch constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, constitutional design and legislation-making. In 2014, Reijer was nominated for the Leiden Law School teaching award. On 9 November 2017, Reijer successfully defended his dissertation on informal constitutional change. In December 2019, Reijer was admitted as a Research Fellow on the faculty research programme The Legitimacy and Effectiveness of Law & Governance at Leiden University.

Before joining academia, Reijer was a Midshipman with the Royal Netherlands Navy and Marine Corps (2005-2007). He then proceeded to study law in Leiden, ultimately graduating with a master's degree in European Law in 2012. Between 2012 and 2017, Reijer was a PhD Researcher and Lecturer in Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden University. In the spring of 2014 he was a visiting researcher at the Department of Government of the University of Texas at Austin. From 1 January 2017 to 1 February 2018, Reijer was an Assistant Professor at Tilburg University. From February 2018 to June 2020, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR).

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