Farewell Niels Blokker: ‘Though the law faculty is changing, much remains the same.’
One of our most engaged and expert scholars is bidding farewell. After forty years at Leiden Law School, first as a student and later as a professor, Niels Blokker reflects on his university career.
If it had been up to Leiden University, we wouldn’t be having this interview. After all, Professor of International Institutional Law Niels Blokker should have already retired – and that means saying goodbye to everything that comes with the workplace. ‘Shortly before my 67th birthday – retirement age – I received a notification from the university that I had to hand in my laptop,’ says Blokker, even though he will still be teaching in April. It was ironic that the symbolic end to his career came via an automated mail. When his career started, the internet didn’t exist. ‘I had to send faxes to international organisations to request information,’ he says. ‘Or I had to go all the way to Geneva to get information from books on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the predecessor of the World Trade Organization.’
'The KOG's where it happens'
It’s quite clear that Blokker wouldn’t himself have chosen to retire. ‘I still enjoy coming to the KOG and do so regularly.’ That said, he is also looking forward to delivering his farewell lecture on 14 March 2025. For now, he is keeping the topic of that lecture under wraps. Like a true professor, he will only reveal his thoughts at the lecture – and not before.
All together in one building
Those working or studying at the KOG anno 2025 more or less take it for granted that the entire faculty in Leiden is housed at one location. Blokker remembers a different era: ‘The faculty was scattered across various buildings throughout the city. For instance, on the Rapenburg there was ‘het Pand’, housing the civil law department, and students would sometimes have tutorials in the beautiful old Gravensteen building, a former prison.'
In the 1990s, plans were made to move everyone to one building, the idea being that staff could work together more closely. Blokker: ‘I can still remember the presentation of the new building. The architect had two centrepieces when it came to renovating the KOG, which was the university's old physics laboratory. The library was to become the beating heart of the faculty, and the Lorentz Lecture Hall, where Albert Einstein had once lectured, was to remain intact.'
‘Prof. Schermers donated the proceeds of his canal house to Leiden University’
Excellent choices, says Blokker: ‘The library with its green banker’s lamps and the tree in the glass case are very special. Foreign colleagues I’ve shown around the KOG agree. And the Lorentz Lecture Hall is a wonderful place to give lectures because of its unique natural light and the ochre-coloured paintwork.’
‘Ongezochte gelegenheid’
Although most staff and students now arrange to come to the KOG, Blokker believes there’s still nothing like impromptu personal contact. ‘The KOG's where it happens – you bump into each other in the JuCA, you get talking and that's how things happen on the spur of the moment.’ He even has a term for it that he learned while working at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs where it was used: ‘een ongezochte gelegenheid’. Blokker: ‘It was only during the Covid pandemic when I had to teach online, that I realised how important it is to meet face-to-face. You only see the true value of something when it’s taken away.'
A pivotal contact
Blokker says that the late Professor Henry (Hein) Schermers was pivotal in how his career developed. ‘As a student, I attended Professor Schermers’ lectures and studied his textbook on the institutional law of international organisations.’ Ultimately, Blokker would go on to co-author this book, International Institutional Law, now commonly referred to as the ‘Schermers-Blokker book’. It is considered to be one of the most important textbooks in the field worldwide.
'You only see the true value of something when it’s taken away'
But before that collaboration, Blokker would write his dissertation and Professor Schermers was one of his supervisors. He was subsequently appointed to the Schermers chair, initially just for one day a week, combining the position with his job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Later, this became a full-time appointment and he could focus entirely on teaching and research. ‘The Schermers chair came about because Professor Schermers sold his canal house in the centre of Leiden and donated the proceeds to Leiden University.’ Leiden Law School then used the funds to establish a special chair in International Institutional Law, which Blokker was the first to fill.
Blokker, therefore, owes a great deal to Schermers, but numerous students and staff, in turn, owe a great deal to him. They speak of his warm and engaged personality, as well as his extensive knowledge of issues in practice, which enabled him to bring theory to life. In this way, he has helped to enthuse many students about his field of law. Blokker was also keen to take the initiative to organise symposia, lectures and conferences in response to current world events, such as in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
And that completes the circle, or to use Blokker's own words: ‘Though the law faculty is changing, much remains the same’.