prof. mr. dr. Chris Jansen

Full Professor, Faculty of Law, Property Law

Full Professor, Kooijmans Institute

Full Professor, Research Programmes - Law, Public Contract Law

Personal information

Prof. dr. Chris Jansen is Full Professor of Private Law at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) since 2004. He is also Director of the VU Centre for Public Contract Law & Governance (CPC) and Deputy Justice at the Courts of Appeal of The Hague and Den Bosch. He is an expert on Contract Law, (European) Public Procurement Law and Construction Law. His current research and teaching activities focus on competitive tendering and execution of public contracts, particularly in the field of building and civil engineering, and on the legal aspects of competitive allocation of scarce rights by (semi-)public authorities in general.

Research

Current research

Bill to amend the Public Procurement Act with a view to strengthening legal protection in public procurement, academic assessment (commissioned by the House of Representatives of the Netherlands).
Competitive allocation of limited rights by the government: a quest for a coherent legal framework, research and supervision of 1 postdoc and 2 PhDs (financed by NWO, the Dutch Research Council).
Towards a coherent and future-proof legal and contractual framework for procurement in construction, research and supervision of 4 PhDs in cooperation with the Dutch Institute for Construction Law (IBR).

Completed research (selection)

Optimizing Public Interests through Competitive Tendering, edited volume published by Cambridge University Press (2025, English).
Uniform Administrative Conditions for Integrated Contracts (UAV-GC 2025), review commissioned by CROW, the Dutch knowledge institute for infrastructure, public spaces, traffic and transport, and work and safety (2025, Dutch).
Consequences of the introduction of the Construction Quality Assurance Act for Dutch standard form construction contracts (2023/2024, Dutch), multiple publications.
Rethinking procurement and construction of design & construct projects: an exploration of current and new approaches with a view to improving information risk management (2021, Dutch), multiple publications.

Teaching

Courses on Construction Law and (European) Public Procurement: Master’s in Law, specialisation: Construction Law (Dutch).
Postgraduate course on (European) Public Procurement Law: lawyers (Dutch).
Postgraduate course on (European) Public Procurement Law: public procurement professionals (Dutch).
Postgraduate course on (European) Public Procurement Law: public procurement professionals Rijkswaterstaat, Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (Dutch).
Postgraduate course on (European) Public Procurement Law and Strategic Procurement in Construction: lawyers and public procurement professionals (Dutch).
Masterclass (European) Public Procurement Law: lawyers and public procurement professionals (Dutch).

Ancillary activities

Gerechtshof Den Haag | Den Haag | Raadsheer-plaatsvervanger | 2017-09-14 - present
Rijkswaterstaat - Bouwcombinatie ALSÉÉN - Bouwcombinatie De Groene Waarden | Utrecht - Gorinchem - Vianen | Adviseur | 2023-06-30 - present
Tijdschrift voor Bouwrecht | Den Haag | Voorzitter Redactieraad | 2025-06-02 - present

Ancillary activities are updated daily