Herman CousyHerman Cousy

Director, Centre for Risk and Insurance Studies, K.U.Leuven
Director, Institute for Commercial Law and Insurance Law, K.U.Leuven
Assessor Legal Section, Council of State, Belgium
Member of the Conseil de Surveillance
of the OCA (CBFA)
Member of the European Group on Tort Law

 
     
 
Contact

University of Leuven
Faculteit Rechtsgeleerdheid
Afdeling Ekonomisch Recht
Tiensestraat 41
B-3000 Leuven, Belgium

Telephone: (+32) 16 325-134
Fax: (+32) 16 325-314

E-Mail: herman.cousy@law.kuleuven.ac.be

 
 
 

Curriculum Vitae

Born in 1946. Herman Cousy got his legal education at the Catholic University of Leuven - Doctor iuris (1969) and Licenciaat in het Notariaat (1969), and at the University of Chicago where he obtained the diploma of Master of Comparative Law in 1970, and again at the Catholic University of Leuven University where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1975 on a thesis on a comparative and legal-economic analysis of the law of product liability. First appointed as assistant professor in 1976, he was made professor ordinarius in 1982 at the Catholic University of Leuven, where he taught ever since, presently commercial law, insurance law, European insurance law as well as a course on the legal aspects of credit. He is presently also director of the Centre for Risk and Insurance Studies (C.R.I.S.), a research group within the Catholic University of Leuven assembling lawyers, actuaries and economists. He is Member of the Presidential Council of AIDA (Association Internationale de Droit des Assurances) and past president of the Belgian section of AIDA and since 2008 treasurer of AIDA-Europe.
He is the Belgian Member of the so-called Tilburg Vienna Group on Tort Law”, and participated in the redaction of the series of comparative preparatory studies and of the Principles of European Tort Law (Springer, New York, 2005).
He is the Belgian Member of the Project Group “Restatement of European Insurance Contract Law”, which is participating in the “Joint Network of European Private Law”, entrusted by the EC-Commission with the task of elaborating a “Common Frame of Reference of European Contract Law”, in the field of insurance.
His publications are mainly in the field on tort law, especially product liability and insurance law. He is much asked as a guest speaker and –writer on the developments in the law of torts, and on insurance law, in national as well as international fora.
He is since 2002 an associated Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts, (Section of Human Sciences). He is since 2003 a Member of the Academia Europea.
Since 2007 he is a Member of the Académie Internationale de Droit Comparé (AIDA-IACL).
For almost eighteen years H. Cousy was President of the Belgian Commission des Assurances (advisory committee to the government) appointment by virtue of the successive Royal Decrees of 13 June 1984, 16 November 1989, and 20 August 1996.
By virtue of Royal Decrees of 1996 and 2001 he was appointed Assessor de la Section “Legislation” of the Belgian Council of State, a position he still holds at this date.
Since 1 January 2004 he was appointed by Royal Decree as a Member of the “Conseil de Surveillance” (Raad van Toezicht) of the CBFA (Commission bancaire, financière et des assurances, Commissie voor het bank-, financie- en assurantiewezen) of Belgium.