Clara van Dam is affiliated to the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law of Leiden Law School as a guest staff member.

More information about Clara van Dam

General

Clara van Dam is affiliated to the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law of Leiden Law School as a guest staff member. Clara’s research interests circle around the processes by which national legislative, judicial and administrative processes and practices are influenced by European Union law as well as the legitimacy and effectiveness of informal administrative governance. Clara has experience in conducting traditional legal research as well as in conducting qualitative empirical research.

Clara received her doctorate from Leiden University in 2020 on her dissertation titled Guidance Documents of the European Commission in the Dutch legal order (see more on her research below). In 2018, she was appointed lecturer and after obtaining her doctorate Clara served as an assistant professor at the department of Constitutional and Administrative Law of Leiden University.

From 2021 until November 2023, Clara worked as a legal advisor at the Judicial Division of the Dutch Council of State. Her main role was to give advice on questions on administrative law and European Union law that arise in cases that are brought before the Judicial Division of the Dutch Council of State. Clara is a member of the editorial board of the Dutch Journal for European Law (NtEr). She currently resides in the United Arab Emirates with her family.

Academic background

Clara holds bachelor and master degrees in law and in political sciences. She received the master’s degree in Constitutional and Administrative Law cum laude from Leiden University. She earned a master’s degree in European Political and Administrative Studies with mention très bien from the College of Europe in (Bruges, Belgium). During her studies, Clara studied at l’Institut d'études politiques (Sciences Po, Paris) where she completed courses in political sciences and in European Union law.

Publications

Clara has published in Dutch and European law journals, including the Review of European Administrative Law (REALaw), the Dutch Journal for European Law (Nter), the Dutch Journal for Administrative Law (NTB), Jurisprudentie Bestuursrecht Plus (JBPlus), Netherlands Administrative Law Library (NALL) and the Common Market Law Review (for which she wrote a book review). Clara also authored and co-authored chapters in edited books and publications. Clara’s latest publication (currently under review) discusses the role of the Aarhus Treaty in shaping the right of access to justice of environmental organisations under national procedural administrative law. A full list of publications can be found under ‘publications’ at this website.

Doctoral research

In her doctoral research, Clara explored the role of guidance documents of the European Commission in the Dutch legal order. The doctoral thesis is online accessible here.

The thesis analyses the issuing process and the effects of these quasi-informal documents in light of both a European and a national context. Her research reveals that guidance documents can have a differentiated and significant, yet often ‘invisible’ influence on national administrative law, jurisprudence, and practice. The research findings are based on numerous interviews with judges, officials and experts in the field and an extensive analysis of case law and government documents.

Her research demonstrates that the effects of guidance documents can both enhance and jeopardise the legitimacy and effectiveness of EU and national governance process. To mitigate the negative effects these documents risk to have, whilst optimising their legitimacy-enhancing effects, her thesis argues that ‘governance through guidance’ would have to be regulated to a larger extent. Yet, when redesigning ‘governance through guidance’, account must be taken of the benefits that informality may have. The book proposes various pathways to regulate the issuing and use of guidance while preserving sufficient room for informality.

During her doctoral research, Clara worked as a Blue Book trainee at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development. She developed a ‘guide for guidance’ – a document outlining principles for Commission officials drafting, issuing and using guidance documents that assist Member States in the implementation of EU law.

As a PhD-fellow Clara attended the Academy of European Law Summer School at the European University Institute (Florence). She also completed the Summer School in Methods and Techniques of Process Tracing Methodology at the European Consortium of Political Research (Ljubljana).

Teaching

As PhD-fellow, lecturer and assistant professor Clara gained extensive experience in teaching, coordinating and organising master and bachelor courses in (European) administrative law. For several years, Clara coordinated and lectured in the master course on the Europeanisation of Administrative Law (Leiden University). She also lectured in and coordinated bachelor courses on (general) Administrative law and supervised the writing of both master and bachelor theses. Clara regularly taught courses on legal methodology, focusing on qualitative empirical research methods in law.

Clara was the academic coordinator of the first edition of Summer Course ‘Europeanisation of administrative law in the EU Member States’ that was organised by the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law of Leiden University (The Hague, July 2017).

Other roles and positions

From 2014 to 2023, Clara was a member of the board of the Dutch Association for European Law (NVER), including a period as a board member of the Dutch Association for Young European Lawyers (STER). Clara actively participated in organising the 20^th edition of the Congress of the Fédération Internationale pour le Droit Européen (FIDE) that took place in The Hague in May 2021. Clara also co-organised the Young FIDE Seminar that took place on the first day of the FIDE Congress.

Activities