Benjamin van Rooij

senior lecturer, Universiteit Leiden

Benjamin van Rooij is a Senior Lecturer at the Van Vollenhoven Institute. He has studied Dutch Law and Chinese Languages and Culture, both at Leiden University. After a short period in legal practice, he started to work at the VVI in June 2000. Since then, Benjamin has been carrying out research on various aspects of law and administration in China and the administrative implementation of law in general. In his PhD-thesis, which was awarded a cum laude, honors distinction, he focused on the local implementation of national resource protection legislation in Southwestern China, analyzing interactions between processes of lawmaking, compliance, violation and enforcement. His current research activities include political law enforcement campaigns in China, pollution regulation in developing countries, developmental lawmaking, and recent trends in law and development studies. Apart from research, Benjamin is active as a lecturer, teaching courses in Chinese Law, Legal Systems Worldwide, Law and Culture, Law Governance and Development, and Anthropology of Law. Concurrently as a member of the institute’s management team, he is also coordinator of the institute’s teaching programs and China activities.