Rick Lawson has a chair in European Protection of Human Rights since 2001; he is part of the Europa Instituut of Leiden Law School. He was appointed, as of 1 September 2025, as the Chairperson of the College voor de Rechten van de Mens, the National Human Rights Institute of the Netherlands. As of this date his full-time position in Leiden was changed into a so-called 0-appointment and he no longer has a teaching assignment.

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Rick Lawson was a fulltime professor, specialising in European human rights law, from 2001 to 2025). He published widely on the European Convention of Human Rights, the Council of Europe, and on the protection of fundamental rights in the EU legal order. He was Programme Director of the Advanced LLM programme in European and International Human Rights Law (2018-2025). Following his appointment, as of 1 September 2025, as the Chairperson of the College voor de Rechten van de Mens, the National Human Rights Institute of the Netherlands, his full-time position in Leiden was changed into a so-called 0-appointment; he no longer has a teaching assignment.

Rick Lawson served as Dean of Leiden Law School (2011-2016). He was appointed member, in respect of The Netherlands, of the Management Board of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) in Vienna (2020-2025), and elected as its Vice-Chair (2021-2025). He served on various occasions as expert before Dutch Parliament and before the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). He was a founding member of the EU Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights (2002-2006); and a s Senior expert of the FRALEX Network of Human Rights Experts, set up by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (2008-2009).

He appeared regularly as a speaker at international conferences and gave guest lectures at various universities and institutions in Europe and beyond. He served in various training programmes organized, inter alia, by the Council of Europe, including in Armenia (Yerevan), Kosovo (Prishtina, Prizren), Moldova (Chisinau), Russian Federation (Moscow, Petersburg), Slovenia (Bled) and Turkey (Istanbul, Izmir, Mardin, Antalya). He was a visiting professor at KU Leuven, Belgium (2017).

Rick Lawson was Member of the board of editors of the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Mensenrechten, the leading Dutch human rights law review (1992-2025); member of the board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation (2011-2018); member of the Human Rights Committee of the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV), an advisory body to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (2011-2018); member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (since 2013). Member of the Board of Overseers of the Stedelijk Gymnasium Leiden (since 2021).

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