Matthias Storme

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Matthias Edward Storme (Ghent, 1959- ) is a Belgian lawyer, libero-conservative academic, thinker and politician.

Contents

1 Family life
2 Academics
3 Professional life
4 Directorships and other mandates
5 Awards
6 Controversies
7 References
8 See also
9 External links

Family life

He was born and raised in a catholic family in the Belgian city of Ghent. His family is widely known for reasons of academic and political excellence.

His father Marcel Storme (b. 1930) used to be a university law professor, lecturing on the topic of Civil Procedure, and a member of the Belgian Senate (1977-1981). His grandfather August De Schryver (1898-1992) held several ministerships in many belgian governments, including the Belgian Exile Government in London during World War Two. He held his seat in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives until the late 1965.

Academics

Storme holds a Master of Laws, a Bachelor of arts in Philosophy and a PhD in law, all three delivered by the Catholic University of Leuven. His doctoral supervisor was professor Walter van Gerven, a former advocate-general to the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxemburg.

Matthias Storme is a member of K.A.V. Lovania Leuven, a catholic student fraternity that is affiliated to the Cartellverband der Katholischen Deutschen Studentenverbindungen. As a student in Leuven, he was active in the Flemish nationalist KVHV Fraternity, as well as in the Royal Flemish Law Society (Koninklijk Vlaams Rechtgenootschap, VRG).

He also studied at Yale University in New Haven, completing his Master of arts in Philosophy, where he also was a member of the Party of the Right and a Graduate Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation.

After his university years in the United States, he continued his higher education at Bologna University, Italy and at the Max Planck Institute for International and Foreign Private Law in Hamburg, Germany.

As a scholar, he already was an active member of the Commission on European Contract Law, the so-called Lando Commission, the Study Group on a European Civil Code and the so-called European Acquis Group. He also helps preparing the Common Frame of Reference for European Private Law.

Professional life

Currently, Matthias Storme is a university professor attached to the University of Leuven and the University of Antwerp. His lectures include the topics of Civil Law, Bankruptcy Law, Comparative Law, International Trade law and European Community Law. He also writes for several academic and political magazines.

Storme is a senior partner lawyer in Brussels, often pleading before the Court of Arbitration, the Belgian court for constitutional and civil rights matters.

Directorships and other mandates

President of the Order of the Flemish Lion (Orde van de Vlaamse Leeuw).
Board member of the Centrum Pieter Gillis, a thinktank on pluralism attached to the University of Antwerp, .
Member of the Flemish Journalists Association (Vlaamse Journalistenvereniging, VJV).
Member of the freedom-loving blogs In Flanders Fields, The Brussels Journal and the Flemish Conservatives.
Member of the Académie des Privatistes Européens in Pavia.
Former chairman (1996-2004) of the Flemish Academics Union (Verbond der Vlaamse Academici, VVA).
Former chairman (1996-2001) of the Alliance of Flemish Organizations (Overlegcentrum van Vlaamse Verenigingen, OVV).
Member of the classic-liberal thinktank Nova Civitas.
Honorary senator (2006- ) to the Movement for a United States of Europe (Beweging voor de Verenigde Staten van Europa).
Member of the Order of the Prince (Orde van den Prince).
Member of Vision and Reality (Visie en Werkelijkheid), a thinktank based on the principles of Christian-Democracy.
Board Member of the General Dutch Alliance (Algemeen Nederlands Verbond, ANV).
Board Member of the Flemish People's Movement (Vlaamse Volksbeweging, VVB).
Board Member of the Flemish Lawyers Association (Vlaamse Juristenvereniging) and the Flemish Public Law Conference (Vlaamse Staatsrechtsconferentie).
Committee Member of the Eleven Days for Flanders-Europe (Elfdaagse Vlaanderen-Europa) and the Movement for Flanders-Europe (Beweging Vlaanderen-Europa).
Member of the secessionist thinktank Denkgroep in De Warande.

Awards

In 2000, he received the André Demedts Award.

Because of his efforts to promote liberty and freedom, he was awarded the prestigious Prize of Liberty by Nova Civitas in 2005.

Controversies

Matthias Storme is heavily criticized by the Belgian egalitarian and leftist establishment because of his viewpoints, such as Flemish independence from Belgium.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} He is a member of the secessionist party N-VA, although he stands very close to the Vlaams Belang. Storme opposes the cordon sanitaire installed around this nationalist political party.

In 1999, Storme brought the Doel Case (a tiny Flemish village near the Scheldt river which was to be evacuated and destroyed in order to make the growth of the Antwerp port possible) to court on behalf of the local inhabitants, assigning the Belgian and Flemish governments.

In 2004, a few days after the conviction of Vlaams Blok organisations for "the incitement of hate and discrimination," by the Ghent Court of Appeal, Storme told a journalist of the leftist newspaper "De Morgen" that "because all so-called democratic parties had supported the freedom-killing antiracism statute, it was nearly a moral duty for every freedom-loving Fleming to vote for the Vlaams Blok in the next election." Afterwards, Storme stepped down as board member of the N-VA party, and the Catholic University of Leuven, where Storme works as a professor, considered taking disciplinary actions against him for his remarks."Storme neemt ontslag uit partijbestuur N-VA: Niet omwille van uitspraak, maar omwille van 'stemoproep'," De Tijd, April 27, 2004

In 2005, when receiving the Prize of Liberty, he held the traditional Gustave de Molinari lecture, in which he proclaimed that "the most fundamental freedom is the freedom to discriminate", directly attacking and rejecting the existing Belgian "totalitarian" legislation restricting freedom of choice in private relationships.

In 2006, when he was nominated a member of the European Honorary Senate of the Movement for a United States of Europe (Beweging voor de Verenigde Staten van Europa), he delivered a speech entitled "The European values: protect them against the values of the European Constitution".

References

External links

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