Kartica van der Zon appointed professor by special appointment of the chair ‘Family and Child Law’ at the University of Groningen
As of 1 May 2025, Professor Kartica van der Zon has been appointed professor by special appointment of the chair ‘Family and Child Law’ at the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen.
Kartica van der Zon will fulfil this position alongside her current appointment at the Department of Child Law and Health Law at Leiden University. In Leiden, she has conducted research on foster care, child participation in care proceedings, the revision of the Dutch Child Protection Act, and the prevalence and characteristics of surrogacy in the Netherlands. Her research is often interdisciplinary, where she frequently collaborates with researchers from other fields. Doing justice to children and the families they grow up in does indeed require more than just legal expertise. Van der Zon is looking forward to strengthening cooperation between Leiden and Groningen in this area.
Department Chair Professor Ton Liefaard is delighted with Kartica’s appointment: ‘It confirms that Kartica is a respected scholar in the field of family and child law, who is also highly motivated to further explore the rights of children and families from both legal and interdisciplinary perspectives. We are very proud of her and look forward to the collaboration with our colleagues in Groningen.’
Children’s rights for children in foster care
Van der Zon studied Dutch Law at Vrije Universiteit (VU), after which she worked for organisations including Defence for Children, the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam, and the University of Amsterdam. In 2020, she was awarded a PhD for her dissertation Pleegrechten voor kinderen (Foster Rights for Children) which explores the significance of children's rights for children living in foster care. Since completing her PhD, she has worked as an assistant professor of family and child law at Leiden Law School’s Institute of Private Law.
At Leiden University, she currently teaches courses in the bachelor’s in Law and the master’s in Child Law, as well as the Advanced Master’s in International Children’s Rights. In addition to her academic work, she serves as a Deputy Children’s Judge at the District Court of The Hague. She also provides training on children’s rights for SSR, the training institute for the judiciary and the Public Prosecution Service.
In her new position as professor by special appointment of the chair ‘Family and Child Law’, Kartica van der Zon will explore the roles and expectations of parenting in an ever-evolving society and their implications for the law.