mr. Laura Jacobs, LLM

PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, Legal Theory and Legal History

PhD Candidate, Kooijmans Institute

PhD Candidate, Research Programmes - Law, Law & Technology

PhD Candidate, Research Programmes - Law, Boundaries of Law

Personal information

Laura Jacobs is a PhD Candidate at the department of legal theory and legal history. She graduated in 2019 with a master in European Law (UvA) and a master in International Technology Law (VU). After graduation she did a Blue Book traineeship at the European Commission in the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT).

In 2020, Laura joined the VU and started working as a junior teacher and researcher. In September 2022 she started with her PhD project, researching the legal and philosophical dimensions of social decision-making of human germline gene editing.

Research

Laura is intrigued by the legal, philosophical and ethical questions raised by the development of new and controversial (bio)technologies. Her PhD research focuses on the technology of human germline gene editing (hgge); a technology that makes it possible to genetically modify offspring. Laura is part of a major research consortium that will investigate what the Netherlands should, or should not, do with this controversial technology. Laura's research will thereby particularly focus on the legal and philosophical dimensions of social decision-making of hgge.

Publications:

- L.E. Jacobs, 'Opinie: Laten we designerembryo’s niet onder het tapijt schuiven', De Volkskrant, 18 september 2025.

- L.E. Jacobs, 'Het belang van een rechtsstatelijk perspectief in de discussie over genetische aanpassing van het nageslacht', Nederland Rechtsstaat, 9 juli 2024.

- L.E. Jacobs, 'Claims van biohackers ontrafeld: bestaat een mensenrecht
op levensverlenging?', Podium voor Bioethiek, 2021/Jaargang 28 nr. 2, p. 44-48.

Teaching

The courses that Laura teaches and taught are: