Frederik Swennen

Biography

Frederik Swennen is a Visiting Scholar for the Fall 2024 semester. His research focuses on new models for the legal recognition of non-traditional family constellations, including queer family and nomadic, plural, and platonic family relationships.  

Professor Swennen served as dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Antwerp from 2018 to 2024, and is also a full professor of family law at the university, where he has taught since 2002. A magna cum laude recipient of LL.B. and LL.M. degrees, the professor earned a Ph.D. in law from the University of Antwerp, where he has taught a broad array of family law subjects, with a focus on international and comparative legal research, and interdisciplinary study relating to sociology and animal law.  He has also served as a visiting professor at KU Leuven in Belgium and Panthéon-Assas University in Paris (Paris II), and as a research fellow at the University of Cape Town and North-West University (Potchefstroom) in South Africa, the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research in London, and the Netherlands Institute for Advance Studies in Amsterdam. He is president of the International Society of Family Law.