Johan Heymans obtained his bachelor’s degree in law from Namur University in 2010 and his master’s degree from Leuven and Tilburg in 2012. He then took a master of laws (LL.M.) in international and US criminal law at New York University and attended an internship in the same city at the department of international criminal law of the International Center for Transitional Justice. He later worked in Phnom Penh for the prosecutor's office at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and was also a guest lecturer in international criminal law at the Royal University of Law and Economics in Cambodia.
With this background, Johan Heymans started his internship as a lawyer at Van Steenbrugge Advocaten in 2014. He focuses exclusively on criminal law and procedure and human rights. At the same time, he has been a teaching assistant in criminal procedure at the Law Faculty of the Antwerp University since 2015. He also gives guest lectures at Ghent University and at the Belgian Institute for Judicial Training.
Since March 2016 Johan Heymans has been active in the Liga voor Mensenrechten(the Human Rights League in Dutch-speaking Belgium): he has been elected to the General Assembly and the League Council, one of the governing bodies, and has already served the League as legal counsel on several occasions. Johan Heymans is also active as a human rights expert at the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) and at Fair Trials.
With his experience outside the legal profession, he is able to approach his profession from a broad perspective.
Degrees and qualifications
Bachelor's degree in law, Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix, Namur, 2010
Master’s degree in law, KU Leuven, 2012
Research master’s degree in law, KU Leuven and Tilburg University, 2012
LL.M. in international and US criminal law, New York University, 2013
Certificat inter-universités Droit Pénal des Affaires, UCLouvain, Liège University and ULB, 2022
Internships
VS Attorneys
Experience
Internship at the International Center for Transitional Justice (department of international criminal law), New York, 2013
Registered at the New York Bar since 2013
Internship at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2013
Guest lecturer in international criminal law at the Royal University of Law and Economics of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2013
Registered at the Ghent Bar since 2014
Teaching assistant at Antwerp University since October 2015
Active in the Human Rights League since March 2016
Specialisations
Human rights
Legal advice for perpetrators and victims of crime
General and specialised criminal law
Corporate criminal law
Capital offences
Traffic offences
Opinion & blog
Pour que l'Europe lutte efficacement contre les "fake news"
Fake news: finally time for a firm European response?
Opinion: Finally an effective prosecution of hate speech online?
Contact research, an invasion of your privacy?
Rightstalk – Johan Heymans on the Turkey Tribunal
Languages
Dutch, French, English
Contact
0032 (0)9 269 10 69
johan.heymans@vsadvocaten.be
legal assistant: Charlotte Riebbels, charlotte.riebbels@vsadvocaten.be – 0032 (0)9 269 10 64
