Professor Wilma Duijst

Since 2016, Prof. Wilma Duijst has held the endowed chair in Forensic Medicine and Health-Related Criminal Law at the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University.

Her research focuses on forensic medicine as well as criminal law. The research topics include:

• Decomposition (both on land and in water)
• Death under state responsibility
• The medical expert in criminal law
• Systems for conducting postmortem examinations

In the various lines of research, collaboration takes place with the AMC, Erasmus MC and Radboud University. The PhD candidates come from medical, anthropological and legal backgrounds

Curriculum Vitae

Wilma Duijst studied medicine at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (1981-1988). She studied law at the Open University (1995-2001). She did her PhD at the Radboud University in Nijmegen in the field of criminal law and health law (2001-2005). Subsequently (2005-2007), she trained as a forensic physician at the Netherlands School of Public & Occupational Health (NSPOH). At the end of 2020, she completed her training as a ‘society and health’ physician (M&G arts; i.e. community medicine/public health physician).

After initially holding various medical positions (both inside and outside health facilities), she taught criminal law and health law at Radboud University in Nijmegen between 2001 and 2015. Since 2005 she has also worked as a forensic physician at GGD IJsselland and as a deputy judge at the District Court of Arnhem and later as a deputy judge at the Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court of Appeal. In 2019 she became a member of the advisory committee on closed criminal cases (ACAS: Adviescommissie afgesloten strafzaken).