Carel Stolker

Carel Jan Jozef Marie Stolker (23 June 1954) is a Dutch academic administrator and the former rector magnificus and president of Leiden University from February 2013 to February 2021.

He was the successor of Paul F. van der Heijden.

His Ph.D. Thesis (1988) was a juridical dissertation about liability for unsuccessful sterilization.

In his book Van arts naar advocaat (1989) Stolker looked at the medical liability crisis in the United States in comparison to the Dutch situation.

In 1991 Stolker taught Comparative Tort Law at the University of California, Hastings School of Law.

In 1992 and 1993 he contributed, as a member of the Task Force Albania of the Council of Europe, to the development of a civil code for Albania.

He was a member of the Air Freight Documentation Committee (the so-called Hoekstra Committee), that conducted an investigation into the cargo of the El-Al aircraft which crashed into the Amsterdam Bijlmer district.

He is a deputy judge at the Court of Haarlem and a deputy justice at the Court of Appeal in 's-Hertogenbosch.

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In 1996 he became director of the E.M. Meijers Institute of Legal Studies at Leiden University and in 2001 became a member of the executive board of the law school, in charge of research.

He published regularly on issues relating to liability law.

Stolker is a professor of private law and former dean of the Leiden University Law School (2005–2011).

Stolker finished high school at Bonaventura College in Leiden.

After completing his military service, he studied law at Leiden University.

From 2005 to 2011 Stolker was dean of the Faculty of Law of Leiden University.

In that capacity he straightened out a long lasting dispute between former criminologist Wouter Buikhuisen and Leiden University.

In 2012, a one-year sabbatical was devoted to the writing of a book about law schools – a comparative analysis of legal education, legal scholarship, and the different approaches of law schools worldwide.