History of the Amsterdam Law School
The return of Minerva
The law faculty has been reunited with its Minerva! – which took some doing: the newly cast floor had to be thoroughly tested first to see if it could bear the weight of the statue and its plinth. The plinth alone weighs two thousand kilos, and the statue another sixteen hundred. Minerva was transported in an especially made-to-measure shipping container.
Portrait of first female Dean
In the presence of members of her family, a portrait of Derkje Hazewinkel-Suringa (1889–1970) was recently unveiled. Hazewinkel-Suringa was the first woman lawyer to be appointed full professor at, and later Dean of, the law faculty. A group of women researchers had previously issued a call for the inclusion of women’s portraits in the Faculty Boardroom.
Roeterseiland
As of the end of 2017, the Amsterdam Law School moved to building REC A on the Roeterseiland, located on and near the Roeterstraat in the centre of Amsterdam. Roeterseiland is named after Hendrik Roeters (1617-1699). Roeters was first an alderman and in 1673 a sheriff of the city of Amsterdam and owned the island at that time. The Roetersstraat, which crosses the island, was built on the Roetersburgwal, which was filled in in 1873.
The Roeterseiland Campus is home to the faculties of Economics and Business Administration, Social and Behavioural Sciences and the Amsterdam Law School. In building REC A you will find, among other things, a 30-metre-high work of art by Barbara Broekman in which she shows the development of the administration of justice on the basis of a thousand years of Western art. This work of art covers all floors and is located in front of the lifts.