FRANSSEN Vanessa

Professeure

FRANSSEN Vanessa

Faculté de Droit, de Science politique et de Criminologie
Département de droit
Droit pénal et procédure pénale
Cité

ULiège address
Bât. B33 Droit pénal et procédure pénale
Quartier Agora
place des Orateurs 1
4000 Liège 1
Belgique
Local
B.33, bureau 1/9
ULiège phone number
+32 4 3663173
ULiège Fax
+32 4 3664537
Email
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Conseil sectoriel à la recherche et à la valorisation
Sciences humaines

University degrees
2000: Candidatures en Langues et littératures romanes (KU Leuven)
2002: Licences en Langues et littératures romanes (KU Leuven)
2003: Candidature unique en Droit (KU Leuven)
2006: Licences en Droit (KU Leuven/Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (échange Erasmus))
2013: Doctorat en droit (« European Sentencing Principles for Corporations ») (KU Leuven)

Bibliography

List of publications
Open Access Publications

Biography

Vanessa Franssen is Professor at the University of Liège (Belgium) and Co-director of the Service de droit pénal, de procédure pénale et de droit pénal international, where she teaches several courses in the field of criminal law and criminal procedure in the Bachelor (eg Droit pénal général) and the Master of Law (eg Cybercrime, Procédure pénale comparée), as well as in the Master of Criminology (eg Principes de procédure pénale) and in the Master of Political Science. Furthermore, she is Affiliated Senior Researcher at the Institute of Criminal Law of the KU Leuven.

Prof. Franssen specializes in cybercrime, EU criminal law, economic and financial criminal law, national and comparative criminal law and criminal procedure. She has specific experience in comparative and interdisciplinary research (e.g. criminology, IT law, data protection law) and is particularly interested in the impact of new technologies (including artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies) on criminal law and criminal procedure. Another prong of her research focuses on the interplay between criminal and quasi-criminal enforcement questioning, among other things, the objectives and effectiveness of different enforcement mechanisms and the protection of procedural safeguards (e.g. with respect to market abuse or customs law). She is leading and participating in several national and international research projects. Since 2025, she also holds an interuniversity chair in customs law (with Prof. Marc Bourgeois, ULiège, and Prof. Eric Van Dooren, UAntwerpen).

She is the author of a large number of publications and conference papers. For instance, she published with Prof. Daniel Flore (ULiège) a collective volume on criminal law in the digital era (Société numérique et droit penal. Belgique, France, Europe, Larcier, 2019). She co-authored a paper on the use of AI in criminal courts (Revue internationale de droit penal, 2021) and a research report on the use of autonomous weapons systems and the Belgian legal framework (International Association of Penal Law, Section IV, 2023). In 2025, she co-edited, with Prof. Stanislaw Tosza (UniLu), the Cambridge Handbook on Digital Evidence in Criminal Investigations (Cambridge University Press). Furthermore, she is an associate editor of the European Law Blog (http://europeanlawblog.eu/), a widely read academic blog on EU law, and the co-editor of the International Enclyclopaedia of Laws ¿ Criminal Law (Kluwer Law International), a book series on criminal law and criminal procedure. Since May 2025, she is the acting president of the Belgian-Luxembourgish Association of Penal Law (a binational group of the AIDP).

She has been consulted on several occasions by European and national policymakers, e.g. on issues regarding e-evidence, data retention, digital justice and corporate criminal liability. For instance, she participated in the High-Level Group of Experts on Access to Data for Effective Law Enforcement (2024) and, at present, she is a member of the High-Level Forum on the Future of EU Criminal Justice (2025).

Previously, Prof. Franssen studied Law and Romance Languages at the KU Leuven and at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University of Paris 1. While preparing her PhD, she was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Michigan Law School (USA, 2011-2012). She obtained her PhD degree at the KU Leuven (2013). In 2014-2015, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg.

Research field

  • Droit pénal
  • Procédure
  • Droit européen
  • Droit de l'informatique
  • Droit comparé
  • Libertés et droits de l'homme

Duties or mandates

  • Membre de la Commission facultaire à la recherche
  • Membre de la Commission des Stages et TFE du Master en droit

Scientific distinctions

  • Fulbright Research Fellow, University of Michigan Law School (2011)

ULiège Course

Certificat interuniversitaire en droit pénal des affaires, FRANSSEN Vanessa, MASSET Adrien

DCER0088-1

Block 2 : The law of AI, 28h Th, ALMADA Marco, ASNOT Bart, BEAMISH Mark, BERTOLINI Andrea, BOSTOEN Friso, CABAY Julien, COLAPS Anna, DE BRUYNE Jan, DE MUYTER Laurent, DEMOLDER Pedro, FRANSSEN Jeroen, FRANSSEN Vanessa, GALVEZ Rafaël, GRAF Thomas, JACQUES Florian, PRZEMYSLAW Palka, TAES Simon, WYMEERSCH Paulien

DCER0102-1

Procédures douanières contentieuses (administratives et pénales), 16h Th, FRANSSEN Vanessa, MELIN Yves

DCER0123-1

Droit et activités de l'ingénieur, 26h Th, AYDOGDU Roman, BIQUET Christine, FRANSSEN Vanessa, KÉFER Fabienne, LECOCQ Pascale, VANBRABANT Bernard, VINCENT Philippe

DROI0724-1

Principes de droit pénal, 30h Th, FRANSSEN Vanessa

DROI1268-1

Droit pénal général, 30h Th, 15h Pr, FRANSSEN Vanessa

DROI1295-1

Principes de procédure pénale, 30h Th, FRANSSEN Vanessa

DROI1299-1

Procédure pénale comparée, 24h Th, FRANSSEN Vanessa

DROI1305-1

Cybercrime, 24h Th, FRANSSEN Vanessa

DROI1317-1

Procédures douanières contentieuses (administratives et pénales), 16h Th, FRANSSEN Vanessa, MELIN Yves

DROI8070-1

ULiège Outside Course

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