Matthias Storme

His grandfather August De Schryver (1898–1992) held several ministerships in many Belgian governments, including the Belgian Exile Government in London during World War II.

His father Marcel Storme (b. 1930) used to be a university law professor, lecturing on the topic of Civil Procedure, and a member of the Belgian Senate (1977–1981) for the Flemish Christian Democrats.

Matthias Edward Storme (born 1959) is a Belgian lawyer, academic and conservative philosopher.

Storme was born and raised in a Catholic family in the Belgian city of Ghent.

He held his seat in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives until the late 1965.

His other grandfather Jules Storme was professor at the Ghent University.

Storme was educated at the Jesuit College in Ghent, the Sint-Barbaracollege (Latin-Greek Humanities 1970–1976) and was a boy scout in the Sint-Barbara group.

He studied law and philosophy, first at the UFSIA in Antwerp (1976–1978) and further at the Catholic University of Leuven (1978–1981), where he obtained a master's degree in law.

As a student in Leuven, he was active in the Flemish nationalist Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudentenverbond (KVHV) of Leuven, as well as in the Royal Flemish Law Society (Koninklijk Vlaams Rechtgenootschap, ).

He later became a member of K.A.V. Lovania Leuven, a catholic student fraternity that is affiliated to the Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen.

Storme also studied at Yale University in New Haven, completing a Master of Arts in philosophy (1982) as a Graduate Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation.

At Yale, he also was a member of the Party of the Right and the Calliopean Society.

After his university years in the United States, he continued his higher education at Bologna University, Italy and at the Max Planck Institute for International and Foreign Private Law in Hamburg, Germany.

He received his doctorate on contract law under professor Walter Van Gerven, a former advocate-general to the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg.

Currently, Matthias Storme is a university professor attached to the University of Leuven and the University of Antwerp.

His lectures include the topics of Civil Law, Bankruptcy Law, Comparative Law, Civil procedure and European Community Law.

Outside the law school, he teaches a course on Comparative Religion and Ideology.

He also writes for several academic and political magazines.

He was three times asked to deliver the Opening lecture of the Bar, in Brussels in 1991, in Mechelen (Malines) in 2000 and in Oudenaarde (Audenaerde) in 2007.

The latter discussed the legitimation of revolution and secession in history.

From 1992 until the end of its activities in 2003, he was a member of the Commission on European Contract Law, the so-called Lando Commission, and he continues to be a member, since 2000, of the Study Group on a European Civil Code and the so-called European Acquis Group.

These groups work together in writing a Draft "Common Frame of reference" for European Contract Law and more generally European Private Law (6th framework program of the European Union).

Storme is a member of the 10-person "Compilation and redaction Team" finalising this draft.

As a member of the Brussels Bar, he was president of the Brussels Young Bar Association (Vlaams Pleitgenootschap bij de balie te Brussel) (1995), member of the Bar Council 1996–1998, and member of the General Council of the Flemish Bars 1998 tot 2000 (Orde van Vlaamse balies).

In 1999, Storme brought the Doel Case (a tiny Flemish village near the Scheldt river which was to be evacuated and destroyed in order to make the growth of the Antwerp port possible) to court on behalf of the local inhabitants, assigning the Flemish government.

He also brought a case in 2007, before the Constitutional Court that seeks to overturn Belgian laws that he claims are limiting the exercise of freedom of speech.

A similar lawsuit was started earlier by prominent Vlaams Belang members.

Other cases before the Constitutional Court concern the introduction of same-sex marriage, modification of electoral laws, the protection of the professional privilege of lawyers against EU-legislation, etc.

As a scholar, Matthias Storme publishes mainly in the field of private law and tries to enrich the Belgian law by integrating elements of comparative law.

In his doctoral thesis on Good faith, he developed the theory of "burdens" (lasten) inspired by the German doctrine of Obliegenheiten.

He developed the theory of confidence in private law, i.a. in his pre-advice for the Vereniging voor de vergelijkende studie in België en Nederland.

A lot of his work concerns a further systematisation of general concepts of patrimonial law, such as representation, authority to dispose, separate patrimonies and funds, trustlike concepts, property of securities and a systematical approach to security rights.

He published articles in legal theory and legal history on the evolution of law, especially the development of law through case law and the juridification of society.

He also published on questions of comparative law and constitutional law and writes a work on Legal Traditions and Systems of the World.

He is an expert appointed by the Flemish Government in the Belgian Commission on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

The interim version of the Draft CFR was published on 1 January 2008.

Storme is also a member of the Académie des Privatistes Européens in Pavia.

He helped to start the comparative law project "Trento common core project" directed by Ugo Mattei (University of Torino) and Mauro Bussani (University of Trento).

He is one of the founders of the European Law Institute (ELI) in 2011.

Storme is now a senior partner lawyer in Ghent, (until 2013 in Brussels, often pleading before the Court of Arbitration, the Belgian court for constitutional and civil rights matters (now called the Constitutional Court).