Rate My Professor Woute Druwé

Wouter Druwé is Associate Professor of Roman Law and Legal History at KU Leuven’s Faculty of Law and Criminology. Born in 1991, he completed his Bachelor of Laws summa cum laude in 2011 and Master of Laws summa cum laude in 2013 at KU Leuven. Concurrently, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Theology and Religious Studies magna cum laude in 2013. He further earned a Master of Arts in Society, Law and Religion summa cum laude in 2015 and a Master of Canon Law summa cum laude in 2018 from KU Leuven’s Faculty of Canon Law. In March 2018, he received his PhD from KU Leuven with a dissertation on the normative framework regarding loans and credit in early modern Netherlandish consilia and decisiones, supervised by Professors Laurent Waelkens and Wim Decock. Since September 2013, Druwé has been affiliated with the Research Unit for Roman Law and Legal History at KU Leuven, first as a bursary holder (2013-2015) and then as a PhD Fellow of the Research Foundation - Flanders (2015-2018). Appointed Associate Professor in September 2018, he teaches Roman law, Pandects, legal history, history of canon law, and contemporary penal law of the Roman Catholic Church. He currently serves as Vice Dean for Education and Director of the Law Program (2024-2028), having previously been Academic Secretary (2020-2024). Other roles include Program Director of the POC Rechten, member of the Faculty Board of the Faculty of Canon Law, and Chair of its Doctoral Committee. He was Visiting Professor at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in April 2022 and Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas in March 2023. In 2016, he received the Prize of the Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies for his master’s thesis on scandalum in Bolognese decretistic and papal decretals (ca. 1140-1234).

Druwé’s research specializations encompass Roman law and legal history, history of canon law, and contemporary penal law of the Roman Catholic Church. His academic interests include loans and credit in early modern Netherlandish consilia and decisiones, qualitative liability in the early modern Low Countries (ca. 1425-1650), legal responses to plague epidemics, testamentary freedom under ius commune and particular law, dignity and cessio bonorum in early-modern Dutch learned legal literature, learned law in late medieval Netherlandish practice, legal practice in Louvain’s legal education (c. 1550-1650), humanism in the legal context of the Southern Netherlands, and the Codex Justinianus in Leuven. Key publications feature his monograph Loans and Credit in Consilia and Decisiones in the Low Countries (c. 1500-1680) (Brill-Nijhoff, 2020); co-editorship of Testamentary Freedom, Ius Commune, and Particular Law (Peeters, 2023), including his chapter on consilia by Leuven law professors Robertus de Lacu and Nicolaus Everardi; “Learned Law in Late Medieval Netherlandish Practice: Consilia for the Congregation of Windesheim (ca. 1415-1500)” (Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis, 2021); and “Qualitative Liability in the Early Modern Low Countries (ca. 1425-1650)” (Grotiana, 2021). Forthcoming edited volumes include Innovationes Lovanienses: Arts, Law, and Theology at the University of Louvain (1425-1797) (Brepols, 2026) and Natural Law and Domestic Government in the Early Modern Period (Brill, 2025). He represents the Faculty of Law and Criminology at KU Leuven Institute LECTIO.