Practice areas
Prof. Dr. Jos Dumortier is an internationally renowned expert in IT and data protection law since more than 30 years.
Jos has a vast experience in regulatory and policy-making work in the areas of IT and data protection law. Back in the ‘90s, he was one of the first Belgian lawyers to deal with these areas of law. At that time he was appointed by the Belgian Government to draft the Belgian Data Protection Act of 1992. He frequently assists European, Belgian and foreign governments and governmental bodies in preparing legislation, conducting pre-legislation and policy-making studies, and performing e-government projects in the areas of IT and data protection law. He works on a regular basis as an expert contracted by the European Commission and authored many European policy-support studies, for instance on electronic evidence, legally interoperable e-health, electronic communications privacy, and data protection adequacy in non-EU countries.
Besides his public-sector work, Jos also has extensive experience in advising companies and organisations on IT and data protection law, such as regarding digital marketing, e-commerce, e-authentication, e-signatures, e-archiving, e-health, trust services, information security and cybercrime.
Academic activities and memberships
From 1993 to 2015, Jos Dumortier has been a Professor of Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Leuven, where he taught and did research on IT, data protection and electronic communications law. Since then he is an Honorary Professor of this University.
In 1990, he founded and became the first Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and Information Technology (ICRI) (currently called the Centre for IT and IP Law (CiTiP) at the University of Leuven.
He has also been a research director at iMinds, a Flemish research institute focusing on information and communication technology in general, and applications of broadband technology in particular.
Between 1984 and 1992, he was a part-time lecturer in Information Science at the University of Antwerp.
Together with the Belgian Minister of Justice, he was also the driving force behind the launch in 2011 of the Belgian Cybercrime Centre of Excellence for Training, Research and Education (B-CCENTRE), of which he became the director. This Centre aimed to be the main platform for collaboration and coordination with regard to cybercrime matters in Belgium, combining expertise of industry players, academic research groups and public organisations (law enforcement, judges and policymakers).
For more than ten years he was an editorial board member of Computerrecht, a leading Belgian-Dutch law journal on IT and data protection law.
He is the author of more than 100 books and articles in the area of IT and data protection law, and a much sought-after speaker at national and international seminars and conferences on these topics.
He is a co-editor of the International Encyclopaedia for Cyber Law.
Professional admissions
Jos has been a member of the Dutch-Speaking Bar Association at the Brussels Bar since 2005 and between 1981 and 1992.
Prior professional experience
Prior to becoming a full-time law professor in 1993, Jos was a lawyer in the Brussels law firm Simont & Simont, which later became part of the international law firm Stibbe (1981-1992). Before founding Timelex in 2007, he was in charge of the IT & Data Protection Law Department of the law firm Lawfort in Brussels (2005-2007).
Education
- Information Science, Free University of Brussels (ULB) (1981-1983)
- PhD in Law, University of Leuven (1975-1981)
- Post-graduate studies, Centre Européen Universitaire (University of Nancy, France, 1974) and University of Heidelberg (Germany) (1975)
- Law degree, University of Leuven (1973)
