Stijn Franken

Stijn Franken is a part-time Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at the Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, part of the Utrecht University School of Law. He holds a core professorship at the institute, working one day a week, while maintaining an active legal practice as a defense lawyer specializing in criminal cases, including cassation, European Court of Human Rights litigation, and major criminal cases.

Education: Stijn Franken studied law at Tilburg University (1985–1989) and earned his PhD there in 1993 with a thesis on 'Joeging ad informandum in strafzaken'. He became a lawyer in 1994, later co-founding the firm Franken Zuur Van Baarlen Van Kampen in 2010, focusing exclusively on criminal law.

Research focuses on the roles and responsibilities of professionals in criminal proceedings (defense, prosecutors, judiciary, experts), and evolving dynamics due to social developments. Teaching includes criminal law subjects in the bachelor’s program, profiling courses, and specialization training for criminal lawyers.