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Dr. mr. O.J. (Olaf) Tans

Amsterdam University College
Amsterdam University College
Photographer: onbekend

Visiting address
  • Science Park 113
  • Room number: 3.24
Postal address
  • Science Park 113
    1098 XG Amsterdam
  • Profile

    Position

    Olaf Tans works as legal philosopher and political scientist at the Department of Social Sciences of Amsterdam University College (AUC). He is also an associated researcher of the VU-based Centre for the Politics of Transnational Law ( CePTL).

     

    Research

    In the last few years he has focused on the following topics:

     

    1. Constitutionalism.

    2. Foundationalism and anti-foundationalism in political and legal theory.

    3. Phenomenology of citizenship.

    4. The use of fiction and role-play in public deliberation.

    5. The Social Construction of Normativity in Transnational Legal Discourse (embedded in CePTL).

     

    His approach to these topics draws mainly from discourse theory, linguistic philosophy, the study of practical reason, aesthetics and critical (legal) thought, as employed by thinkers such as Habermas, Foucault, Arendt, Nussbaum, Walton, Toulmin, Legendre and Derrida.

     

    Teaching

    At AUC Tans has developed and teaches the courses Law, Society & Justice, Legal & Social Philosophy and Philosophical Problems. His approach is strongly interdisciplinary, interactive, and yet structured. Earlier in his career he has taught courses about e.g. public law, governance, general jurisprudence, and philosophy of international law. 

     

    Career

    Tans studied law and political science at the University of Groningen. He holds a PhD in Governance Studies from Twente University, based on a thesis entitled The Constitutional Theatre: Contribution to a Discourse Theory of Constitutionalism. Later he has been a postdoc at the law faculty of the UvA, contributing to a NWO-funded research program about democracy in the European Union with a book entitled National Parliaments and European Democracy, a bottum-up approach to European Constitutionalism. Before joining AUC, he has been an assistant professor in legal philosophy at the Free University of Amsterdam.

     

    Publications

     

    JOURNAL ARTICLES

     

    2017 'Knowledge Construction in Legal Reasoning: A Three Stage Model of Law's Evolution in Practical Discourse', International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, DOI 10.1007/s11196-017-9516-y

     

    2016 'Opinio Juris as Epistème: A Constructivist Approach to the Use of Contested Concepts in Legal Doctrine', special issue of Recht der Werkelijkheid 37:3, 37-52.

     

    2016  'Moral Judgment as Make-Believe: A Pretense Based Account of Imagination in Practical Reason', forthcoming in Philosophy Today.

     

    2016  ‘Staging Law’s Existence. Using Pretense Theory to Explain the Fiction of Legal Validity’, Ratio Juris 29:1, 136-154.

     

    2015  'Imagined Constitutionality: Rethinking Democratic Citizenship with the Aid of Fiction Theory', Law, Culture and the Humanities, doi:10.1177/1743872115579025.

     

    2014  ‘The Imaginary Foundation of Legal Systems - A Mimetic Perspective’, Law & Literature 26:2, 127-143.

     

    2012  ‘Parlementaire controle op Europese Besluitvorming,’ Tijdschrift voor Constitutioneel Recht 4:3, 256-265.

     

    2012  ‘Recht en Burgerschap: een verkenning van modaliteiten. Inleiding bij een symposiumnummer’, Recht der Werkelijkheid 33:1, 5-19.

     

    2011  ‘Het ideaal van een machtsvrij discours. Over Jürgen Habermas, het communicatief paradigma, en rechtvaardigheid in mediation’, Tijdschrift Conflicthantering.

     

    2011  ‘Een bal voor de burger. De preambule als medium voor deliberatief burgerschap’, Tijdschrift voor Constitutioneel Recht 2:2, 122-129.

     

    2009  ‘De fictie van de constitutie. Over de maatschappelijke functie van ontwerp-denken’, Recht der Werkelijkheid 30:1, 12-26.

     

    2009  ‘De moraal van het juridisch verhaal. Hoe Ronald Dworkin samenhang ziet in een lappendeken’, Filosofie 19:5.

     

    2007  ‘Deliberating European constitutional norms – an analysis of arguments’, in: J.R. Carracedo (ed.), Political Philosophy, special issue of  Archiv Für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie, 213-226.      

     

    2007    ‘De oranje kaart: een nieuwe rol voor nationale parlementen?’, 55 SEW, Tijdschrift voor Europees en Economisch Recht 11, 442-446.

     

    2004  ‘De discursieve constructie van recht. Bijdrage aan een evolutietheorie van juridische kennis’, in: Recht der Werkelijkheid 19, 43-57.

     

    2002  ‘The Constitutional Theatre’, in:  Res Publica. A Journal of Legal and Social Philosophy 8:3, 231-248.

     

     

    BOOKS

    2009 De Grenzen van het Goede Leven, Edited by O.Tans, W. Veraart, B. Wolthuis, J. Zwart (Nijmegen, Ars Aequi).

     

    2007 National Parliaments and European Democracy. A Bottum-up Approach to European Constitutionalism, Edited by O. Tans, C. Zoethout, J. Peters (Groningen: Europa Law Publishing).

     

    2003  Het Constitutionele Theater. Bijdrage aan een discourstheorie van het constitutionalisme (phd-thesis, Amsterdam, Thela Thesis, 2003).

     

     

    CHAPTERS

    2018 'Vertegenwoordigende Democratie in Nederland: Een Genealogie in Vogelvlucht,' in: Huub Spoormans (red.), Democratie Ontrafeld: Inzichten in Hedendaags Onbehagen (Den Haag: Boom Juridisch, 2018), pp. 59-90. 

     

    2009  ‘Sein en Sollen in Juridisch Discours. Over dat andere uitgangspunt van het rechtspositivisme,’ in: O. Tans et al., De Grenzen van het Goede Leven (Nijmegen, Ars Aequi).

     

    2007  ‘National Parliaments and European Democracy - In Search of Common Ground’, in: O. Tans, C. Zoethout, J. Peters (eds.), National Parliaments and European Democracy. A Bottum-up Approach to European Constitutionalism, 3-21.

     

    2007  ‘The Dutch Parliament and the EU - A Constitutional Analysis’, in: O. Tans, C. Zoethout, J. Peters (eds.), National Parliaments and European Democracy. A Bottum-up Approach to European Constitutionalism, 163-182.

     

    2007  ‘National Parliaments and the EU - Coping with the Limits of Democracy’, in: O. Tans, C. Zoethout, J. Peters (eds.), National Parliaments and European Democracy. A Bottum-up Approach to European Constitutionalism, 225-249.

     

    2006  ‘The fluidity of warrants. Using the Toulmin model to analyse practical discourse’, in: D. Hitchcock & B. Verheij (eds.), Arguing on the Toulmin model: New essays on argument analysis and evaluation (Dordrecht: Springer), 219-230.

     

    2006 'The Dutch parliament and the European Constitution: How yes led to no', in: P. Kiiver (ed.), National and Regional Parliaments in the European Constitutional Order (Groningen: Europa Law Publishing). 

     

    2001  ‘Op zoek naar het virtuele. Over het verband tussen de institutionele rechtstheorie en het constructivisme’, in: M.A. Heldeweg, R.J.P. Schobben, W.G. Werner (red.), De Regel Meester, Opstellen voor Dick W.P. Ruiter (Enschede: Twente University Press), 221-232.

     

     

    OTHER

    2015    ‘Antidemocratische Partijen: Verbieden of Verdragen?’, Civis Mundi.

     

    2011       ‘Leve de afkeer van de doofpot in de VS’, in: De Volkskrant of 8 juni 2011.

     

    2010     ‘Prooimion,’ in: W. Bongers e.a., Wij,burgers van Europa. Lyrische inleidingen (Brussel/Amsterdam: Stichting De Buren en Stichting Perdu).

     

    2010     ‘Pleidooi voor een preambule’, op:  www.publiekrechtenpolitiek.nl, 29-10-2010, later at  www.sargasso.nl.

     

    2010     ‘De moderne schurk is een giga-geldwolf’, NRC 17 april 2010 (with Stine Jensen).

     

    2008     ‘Our knowledge of the law’, book review, Rechtstheorie & Rechtssociologie.

     

    2007     ‘Een Debat Getoetst’, book review, in 28 Recht der Werkelijkheid 1(2007), 95-99.

     

    2005    ‘Veranderende Solidariteit. In gesprek met rechtssocioloog Rob Schwitters’, Facta 13, no. 3. (with Roland Pierik).

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Publications

    2007

    • Tans, O., Zoethout, C., & Peters, J. (Eds.) (2007). National parliaments and European democracy: a bottom-up approach to European constitutionalism. Groningen: Europa Law Publishers. [details]

    2006

    • Tans, O. J. (2006). Chapter 14. The fluidity of warrants: using the toulmin model to analyse practical discourse. In D. Hitchcock, & B. Verheij (Eds.), Arguing on the Toulmin Model: New Essays in Argument Analysis and Evaluation (pp. 219-230). Springer.
    • Tans, O. J. (2006). Chapter 6. The Dutch parliament and the European constitution. In P. Kiiver (Ed.), National and Regional Parliaments in the European Constitutional Order (pp. 79-95). Groningen: Europa Law Publishing.

    2004

    • Tans, O. J. (2004). De discursieve constructie van recht. Bijdrage aan een evolutietheorie van juridische kennis. Recht der Werkelijkheid, 43-57. [details]

    2005

    • Tans, O. J., & Pierik, R. (2005). Veranderende Solidariteit. In gesprek met rechtssocioloog Rob Schwitters. Facta, 13(3), 24-27. [details]
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
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