Maria Weimer is associate professor of EU law and regulation at the Law Faculty of the University of Amsterdam and a senior researcher at the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance (ACELG) and the interdisciplinary Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES). She represents the Amsterdam Law School as a member of the Amsterdam Young Academy , an independent interdisciplinary plattform of 30 talented researchers from the University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universiteit who work together to better represent young researchers in science policy and to build bridges between science and society in Amsterdam.

Before joining UvA, Maria Weimer worked as a post-doctoral researcher and lecturer at the Department of International and European Law of Maastricht University (2011-2013). She holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence. She is the author of a monograph with Oxford University Press titled "Risk Regulation in the EU Internal Market - Lessons from Agricultural Biotechnology" and the deputy editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Risk Regulation published with Cambridge University Press.

Working at the interface of law, social and political sciences and studies of governance and regulation, Maria Weimer has extensive experience of interdisciplinary collaboration. In the past, she participated, for example, in collaborative EU-funded projects, such as RECON (Reconstituting Democracy in Europe) and INPROFOOD (Towards Inclusive Research Programming for Sustainable Food Innovations). She currently participates in the research consortium InDivEU (Integrating Diversity in the European Union) funded under Horizon 2020 and led by the European University Institute.

Maria Weimer’s research is guided by the question of how governments and international organisations can secure public interests, such as environmental protection and public health and safety, under conditions of economic globalization, rapid technological innovation and multi-level governance? Substantively, her research lies at the intersection between the environment, public health, food safety and agriculture. She focuses on exploring the potential of law and governance to address urgent environmental, health and safety risks arising from the operation of modern agri-food systems; as well as to enable the transition to sustainable food and agricultural systems.

Maria Weimer has published widely in this area combining EU internal perspectives (EU risk regulation) with external perspectives (the role of the EU as a transnational regulator; international trade law and global governance). Recent publications include a monograph with OUP titled "Risk regulation in the EU internal market -  lessons from agricultural biotechnology" and edited book published with Hart Publishing titled "Regulating risks in the EU - the co-production of expert and executive power".

In the past, Maria Weimer completed a personal research project (Rubicon) funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) on the role of WTO law in domestic and transnational food safety and environmental regulation. Since January 2020 she works on her second NWO funded project (Veni) on the role of the EU as a global environmental regulator with a focus on the fight against tropical deforestation, which results from agricultural expansion. The project is titled "Making the EU a global leader in fighting tropical deforestation" and runs for three years.

Key publications:

M. Weimer, Risk regulation in the internal market – lessons from agricultural biotechnology, Oxford University Press, 2019

The book offers a topical inquiry into the legal and political limits of EU regulation in the field of risk and new technologies, which are surrounded by techno-scientific complexity, uncertainty, and societal contestation. Its main contribution is to offer a new understanding of the legitimacy challenges of EU risk regulation; and to show the ways in which current interpretations of EU internal market law together with technocratic understandings of EU risk regulation exacerbate these challenges. The book uses agricultural biotechnology as a paradigmatic example to illustrate the complex intertwinement of environmental, public health, economic and social concerns in risk regulation. It analyses the drawbacks of the EU approach in this field showing its ‘risk reductionism:’ i.e. the narrow understanding of GMO risks and the exclusion of broader societal concerns related to environmental and social sustainability. Such reductionism ultimately undermines both the legitimacy and effectiveness of EU regulation in this area, and triggers new dis-integration dynamics. This text offers fresh and original insights into how far the EU can go in harmonizing regulatory approaches to risk. It also proposes new ways of re-thinking EU risk regulation to make it more responsive to different perspectives on risk and technology. A unique feature of this book is that it contributes to various strains of scholarship including risk regulation, internal market law, public administration, and studies of governance and regulation, as well as connecting these themes to broader debates about the legitimacy of European integration and new ways of differentiated integration. As a result, it assists in re-imagining the EU internal market and its regulation as a site of diversity.

M. Weimer, “Reconciling regulatory space with external accountability through WTO adjudication – trade, environment and development” Leiden Journal of International Law 30 (4) (2017) 901-924

M. Weimer, “The origins of ‘risk’ as an idea and the future of risk regulation”, European Journal of Risk Regulation 8 (2) (2017) 10-17

M. Weimer & A. de De Ruijter (eds), Regulating Risks in the European Union – The Co-production of Expert and Executive Power, Hart Publishing, 2017

L. Marin & M. Weimer (eds), Regulating Emergent Technologies, Special Issue of the European Journal of Risk Regulation, 3/2016

M. Weimer, “Risk regulation and deliberation in EU administrative governance”, European Law Journal, 21 (5) (2015) 622-640

M. Weimer & E. Vos, “The Role of the EU in Transnational Regulation of Food Safety: Extending Experimentalist Governance?” in Jonathan Zeitlin (ed), The Role of the EU in Transnational Regulation: Extending Experimentalist Governance? (Oxford University Press, 2015) p. 51-80

More publications:

• D. Curtin and M. Weimer, “The Court of Justice of the European Union - A Supranational Adjudicator and Accountability Forum” with Deirdre Curtin in F. Amtenbrink, D. Curtin, P.J. Kuijper, A. McDonnell and B. De Witte (eds), The Law of the European Union, fifth edition (The Hague: Kluwer, forthcoming)
• M. Weimer & G. Pisani, “Expertise as justification: the contested legitimation of the EU risk administration”, in Weimer & De Ruijter (eds) Regulating risks in the EU – the co-production of expert and executive power (Hart Publishing 2017)
• M. Weimer & A. De Ruijter, Regulating Risks in the European Union – The co-production of expert and executive power in idem (eds) Regulating risks in the European Union – The co-production of expert and executive power (Hart Publishing 2017)
• E. Vos & M. Weimer, “Differentiated integration or uniform regime? National derogations from EU internal market measures” in B. De Witte, A. Ott and E. Vos (eds), “Between Flexibility and Disintegration: The Trajectory of Differentiation in EU Law” (Edward Elgar 2017)
• M. Weimer and L. Marin, "Regulating new and emerging technologies - the role of law in managing the tension betwen risk and innovation", Introduction to special issue edited by L. Marin & M. Weimer Regulating emerging technologies, European Journal of Risk Regulation, 3/2006, p. 469-474
• M. Weimer, “Reconciling Regulatory Space with External Accountability through WTO Adjudication – Trade, Environment and Development” Postnational Rulemaking Working Paper No 2016-09
• M. Weimer and G. Pisani, “Expertise as justification: the contested legitimation of the EU risk administration”, Postnational Rulemaking Working Paper No 2016-06
• A. Schrauwen, C. Eckes, and M. Weimer, “Inclusion and Exclusion in the European Union” Amsterdam Centre for European Law Working paper No 2016-05
• M. Weimer, “Risk regulation, GMOs, and the challenges to deliberation in EU governance - politicisation and scientification as co-producing trends” in C. Joerges & C. Glinski (eds),  The European Crisis and the Transformation of Transnational Governance (Hart Publishing, 2014) 
• M. Weimer & G. Pisani, “The EU adventures of ‘Herculex’ – Report on the EU authorization of the genetically modified maize 1507”, European Journal of Risk Regulation Issue 2/201
• C. Joerges and M. Weimer, “A Crisis of Executive Managerialism in the European Union – No Alternative?”, in Joanne Scott, Gràinne De Bùrca & Claire Kilpatrick (eds), Critical Legal Perspectives on Global Governance. Liber Amicorum for David Trubek (Hart Publishing 2013)
• M. Weimer, “EU Risk Governance of ‘Cloned Food’ – Regulatory Uncertainty Between Trade and Non-Trade” In: Marjolein Van Asselt, Esther Versluis and Ellen Vos (eds)  Science and Politics in EU Risk Governance: Integrating Legal and Social Science Perspectives (Taylor & Francis/Routledge)
• M. Weimer, “ ‘It’s the Politics, Stupid.’ Or is Reality More Complex? “, European Journal of Risk Regulation, Issue 2/2013, pp. 297
• M. Weimer, “The Right to Adopt Post-Market Restrictions of Genetically Modified Crops in the EU – A shift from De-Centralised Multi-Level to Centralised Governance in the Case of GM Foods”, Case note on Court of Justice of the European Union, Joined Cases C-58/10 to C-68/10 Monsanto SAS and Others, European Journal of Risk Regulation, Issue 3/2012, pp. 445
• M. Weimer, “Administrative Constitutionalism and European Conflicts Law” in: Christian Joerges and Tommi Ralli (eds) After Globalisation – New Patters of Conflicts, RECON Report No 15 (Arena, Oslo)
• M. Weimer, “Applying Precaution in EU Authorization of Genetically Modified Products – Challenges and Suggestions for Reform,” Vol 16 (5) European Law Journal (2010), p. 624
• M. Weimer, “What Price Flexibility? – The recent Commission Proposal to allow for national ‘opt-outs’ on GMO cultivation under the Deliberate Release Directive and the Comitology post-Lisbon”,  European Journal of Risk Regulation Issue 4/2010, p. 345
• M. Weimer, “The Regulatory Challenge of Animal Cloning for Food – the Risks of Risk Regulation in the European Union,” European Journal of Risk Regulation Issue 1/2010, p. 31
• M. Weimer, “Regulating Animal Cloning under WTO Law – Policy Choice versus Science,” Finnish Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 20 (2009), p. 291
• M. Weimer, “Legitimacy through Precaution in European Regulation of GMOs? “ in: Christian Joerges/Poul Kjaer (eds.), Transnational Standards of Social Protection: Contrasting European and International Governance, RECON Report No 4 (Arena, Oslo)

Maria Weimer contributes to the teaching of the Department of International Public and European Law, in the following courses:

Master:

Principles and Foundations of EU Law (LL.M) (course coordinator)

EU Regulated Markets (course coordinator)

Bachelor:

Moot Court in EU law, Minor Law and Justice in the European Union (course coordinator)

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