Faculty Profile

Maartje DE VISSER is a Professor of Law at the Yong Pung How School of Law and College of Integrative Studies, Singapore Management University. Her research is in the field of comparative constitutional law writ large, with a special focus on constitutional engagement by courts and non-judicial actors. She also has an abiding interest in comparative methodology, including the role of language, questions of constitutional design in small states and the role of international advice vis-a-vis national constitutional law. Maartje has published widely on these topics, with her work appearing in leading peer-reviewed journals including the International Journal of Constitutional Law, Global Constitutionalism, the American Journal of Comparative Law, and the Asian Journal of Law and Society. She has co-edited seven books and contributed chapters to more than 30 edited volumes. Maartje is the recipient of five Lee Kong Chian Fellowships for research excellence, and a member of the editorial board of the Hart Studies in Constitutional Theory Series as well as the European Yearbook of Constitutional Law. She is the founding co-chair of the Singapore Chapter of ICON-S.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. (cum laude), Tilburg University, 2009
• M.Jur. (with distinction), Oxford University, 2004
• LL.M. (cum laude), Maastricht University, 2003

Academic Positions Held

Current Appointment:

• Professor of Law, Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University, Jan 2024-
• Associate Dean (Research), Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University, Jul 2025-

Other Positions

• Associate Professor of Law, School of Law, Singapore Management University, Jan 2016-Dec 2023
• Associate Dean (Postgraduate Teaching & Curriculum), School of Law, Singapore Management University, Jul 2017-Jun 2020
• Director, J.D. Programme, Singapore Management University, Jul 2017-Jun 2020
• Assistant Professor of Law, School of Law, Singapore Management University, July 2013-Dec 2015
• Assistant Professor of Law, Maastricht University, 2010-2013 
• Assistant Professor of Law, Tilburg University, 2008-2010
• Visiting Scholar, National University of Singapore, 2006
• Doctoral Researcher, Tilburg University, 2004-2008 

Course Taught in SMU

• Comparative Legal Systems
• Constitutions, Cultures and Context

Research Areas / Areas of Specialisation

• Engagement with constitutional rules and values outside the courtroom
• Constitutional courts
• Transnational judicial dialogues
• Comparative pedagogy and methodology

Current Projects

• Framework for extra-judicial constitutional interpretation
• Participatory constitution-making in small states
• Cultivating constitutional literacy and identity

Selected Publications

• Academia.edu author page: https://smu-sg.academia.edu/MaartjedeVisser
• SSRN author page: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=706999
• "Non-Judicial Constitutional Interpretation: The Netherlands" in D Law (ed), Constitutionalism in Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020) (forthcoming)
• "Glocalized constitution-making in the twenty-first century: evidence from Asia" (2019) 9 Global Constitutionalism 297-331 (with Bui Ngoc Son)
• "Constitutional judges as agents for development" (2019) 12 Law and Development Review 691-722
• "We All Stand Together – The Role of the Association of Asian Constitutional Courts and Equivalent Institutions in Promoting Constitutionalism" (2016) 3 Asian Journal of Law and Society 105-13
• "A Critical Assessment of the Role of the Venice Commission in Processes of Domestic Constitutional Reform" (2015) 63 American Journal of Comparative Law 701-46
• "Constitutional Review in Europe – A Comparative Analysis" (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2014)