Frederik Swennen - Biography#

Frederik Swennen (PhD) (m) is Dean (2018/21 and 2021/24) and Senior Full Professor of Family Law at the Faculty of Law of the UAntwerp.

Swennen studied law (LLB 1993 magna cum laude, LLM 1996 magna cum laude, top 1%) at UAntwerp and the University of Cape Town (1 semester). Opting for an academic career, he obtained his PhD (UAntwerp) in 2000 as a Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders. After clerking to the Prosecutor General in the Belgian Court of Cassation, he was appointed as a full-time senior academic staff member at UAntwerp in 2002. He has been an of counsel lawyer (Antwerp Bar) since 2006.

Swennen teaches family law, including international family law and family proceedings, at the UAntwerp, KU Leuven, and five summer schools of the Fondation pour le Droit Continental (Paris II).

Swennen’s research on family law & policy is social-theoretically informed and empirically grounded. His research is primarily international and comparative and aimed at an international readership. Swennen’s research is mostly interdisciplinary, with sociologists and social theorists, and often includes a transdisciplinary component. His focus is on non-traditional family constellations, both horizontal (adult unions) and vertical (parents and children) and their intersections. It challenges the traditional family paradigms on which family law and policy are based. The empowerment and protection of adults with disabilities is also an area of research interest. He has secured > 2M€ of research funding, successfully supervised 10 PhD students and (co-)authored over 120 peer-reviewed publications. He was the spokesperson (2003/17) of his research group Personal Rights and Personal Rights.

In terms of engagement, Swennen is the president of the International Society of Family Law (2023-26) and an associate member of the International Academy of Comparative Law. He is also the chair of the Child Abuse Trust Center in Antwerp.