Paulien de Winter

Paulien was an Instituut Gak fellow at NIAS during 2024-2025.

Paulien de Winter is an Associate Professor of Legal Theory at the Department of Constitutional Law, Administrative Law and Legal Theory (SBR) at Utrecht University, since April 2024. As a researcher, she is affiliated with the Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice. Since August 2025, she has been appointed endowed professor of Regulatory Enforcement at the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen. The chair was established by Vide, the association for professionals in the field of supervision, inspection, enforcement, and evaluation.

From 2014 to 2024, Paulien worked at the Department of Constitutional Law, Administrative Law and Public Administration (SBB) at the University of Groningen, where she was a core member of the Groningen Centre for Empirical Legal Research (GELR) and earned her doctorate with the dissertation, “Tussen de Regels. Een rechtssociologisch onderzoek naar handhaving van de socialezekerheidswetgeving” (“Between the Rules: A Socio-Legal Study of the Enforcement of Social Security Legislation”). 

Her empirical legal research focuses primarily on enforcement and supervision. For example, she studies how frontline staff apply rules in practice, particularly within the social domain. In 2025, Paulien was a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in Amsterdam. In 2024, she received a research grant from the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) for her project on contrasts between administrative and criminal sanctions in the Dutch social security system. In 2023, she was awarded a Gratama grant for her research on strengthening the human dimension in the enforcement of social security legislation. Based on this latter research, she published the book “Van hard naar hart?” (“From Tough to Tender?”) and produced the three-part podcast “Menselijke Maat: Van hard naar hart?” (“Human Dimension: From Tough to Tender”). Since 2022, she has also been involved in the Dutch National Science Agenda (NWA) project “Reflective Supervision,” which explores reflexive regulation using narrative methods in the provision of services to vulnerable individuals (RUN).

As a lecturer, she contributes to the undergraduate law programme, teaching courses such as Grondslagen van Recht, Perspectieven op Recht, Algemene Rechtsleer, De Levende Rechtsstaat en Toegang tot het Recht. In addition, Paulien coordinates the minor "Maatschappelijke uitdagingen en de rechtsstaat", and in 2025 she received a grant from the Utrecht Education Incentive Fund (USO) to map the contextual learning pathway.

Paulien also serves as a board member of the Dutch Association for Law and Society (VSR), is a member of the editorial board of the Tijdschrift voor Toezicht (TvT, Journal for Supervision), an editorial board member of the European Journal for Empirical Legal Studies (EJELS), and a regular contributor to the Ars Aequi Quarterly Signal on Sociology of Law. Previously, she was editorial secretary and editorial board member of the Journal of Empirical Research on Law in Action (Recht der Werkelijkheid).