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The seventh Europe volume of Constitutions of the World covers Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; a central European region in which constitutional echoes of the revolutions of 1789, 1830 and 1848, the restoration following the Congress of Vienna and the national independence movements can be found. The scope of the edited source material reaches from the 1789 ""Liège declaration on human rights"" and the ""Declaratie van de Rechten van de Mens en Burger van Holland"" from 1795 to the constitutional documents of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815- 1830/39) and the Kingdom of Bel

The literature on immigrant transnationalism and on irregular immigration suggests irregular migrants engage relatively little in transnational activities because of the obstacles associated with their legal and economic statuses. Drawing on participant observation and in-depth interviews with a diverse population of irregular migrants in Belgium and the Netherlands, however, I shall demonstrate in this article that irregular migrants do indeed engage in various transnational activities. Moreover, I argue that a focus on aspirations helps to understand why irregular migrants either do or do not engage in specific transnational activities. Distinguishing between investment, settlement and legalization aspirations, I analyse whether and for what reasons irregular migrants carry out economic, social and political transnational activities. I conclude that future research on transnationalism and on the incorporation of irregular and regular migrants alike could benefit from contextualizing the agency of migrants by taking their aspirations into account.

The aim of Diversity in Family Formation is to examine changes in the start of the family formation process. Rather than giving a rough overview of demographic changes in many countries, a comparison of differences in changes in family formation and fertility behaviour between Belgium and The Netherlands is interesting for various reasons. First, even though the economic and cultural differences between these countries are relatively small there is one important difference: Belgium is predominantly Catholic, whereas The Netherlands has about equal proportions of Catholics and Protestants. Second, if the Second Demographic Transition implies that there is one common pattern of change in different European countries and that differences across countries are due to the fact that countries are in a different stage of the transition process, and if it is assumed that the transition process started earlier in Protestant countries than in Catholic countries, one would expect The Netherlands to be in a further stage of the transition process than Belgium. Thus an in-depth comparison of changes in family formation and fertility behaviour between both countries may give us more insight in the question of whether there is one common transition process. The comparison of fertility and family survey-data in both countries brings us to the core question of whether there is one common explanation for differences between countries in various types of fertility and family behaviour under consideration, namely fertility regulation, the choice of living arrangement after leaving the parental home, and the labour force participation of mothers

The one principle that is central to EU legislation on private international law, is that of mutual trust. States leaving the Union also leave that realm of mutual trust. That was the fate of the United Kingdom, as it officially left the union on 31 January 2020. UK Cross-border insolvency procedures started after the ending of the transition period on 31 December 2020 do not benefit from that principle anymore. The effect of these procedures in the different EU Member States is regulated by their own residual national framework. This article seeks to compare the recognition and execution frameworks of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. The question is raised whether further harmonization is needed.

The question of why and how gentiles rescued Jews during the Nazi period has been a consistent element in the wider historiography of the Holocaust ever since 1945, not least after the creation of Yad Vashem and the identification and recognition of non‐Jews as "Righteous among the Nations". Research on the Holocaust has identified, and continues to identify, individuals who meet the criteria laid down for the award, and the shelves of books devoted to memoirs bear witness to its continued popularity with the book‐buying public. However, study of the topic to date has been very narrowly defined, either as sociological enquiry into the nature of altruism, or as the history of a relatively small number of dedicated individuals. This paper attempts to outline the importance of a wider context for the study of rescue under three headings. Firstly, it focuses on the linkages between rescue activities and other forms of resistance during the occupation period. Secondly, it demonstrates the importance of a regional rather than a national approach to the topic. Finally it examines how "rescue" can be seen as having a tradition; for example in the case of Belgium from the experiences of occupation in the First World War, and in the Netherlands from longer‐standing rural social traditions of helping those in need.

Several studies have examined the impact of earlier children on fertility decisions in second unions. These studies are guided by two hypotheses: the parenthood hypothesis, which argues that people want to have children to become a parent, and the commitment hypothesis, which argues that people want to have children to confirm the union. Because people often enter a second union while already having a prior child, recohabitation— which refers here to both unmarried and married new unions—is an ideal case for testing these hypotheses. Using data from the survey Divorce in The Netherlands, we test the validity of these two hypotheses. In addition, we extend comparisons from second unions to first marriages and we develop hypotheses about the effect of divorce on subsequent fertility. The findings support the argument that attaining parenthood in recohabitation is more important than having a child to cement the new union. Women who are recohabiting with a prior child are less likely of having a first birth in the new union than women who are recohabiting without a prior child. This applies less clearly to men and effects differ depending on the number, age, and residence status of the children. We also find evidence for our hypothesis about the effect of divorce. More specifically, recohabiting women without a child are more likely to have a child than first married women. For men, no such effect could be found. Our interpretation is that recohabiting women are catching up missed fertility opportunities in their first marriage, even though their total fertility remains lower as a result of age restrictions.

In the Netherlands, active citizenship in the context of urban regeneration of deprived neighbourhoods seems to have evolved into 'entrepreneurial citizenship'. The concept of entrepreneurial citizenship combines top-down and bottom-up elements. National and/or local governments promote an ideal citizen with entrepreneurship skills and competencies to create more responsible and entrepreneurial citizens' participation in government-initiated arrangements. At the same time, bottom-up behavioural practices from citizens who demand more opportunities to innovatively apply assets, entrepreneurial skills, strategies and collaboration with other stakeholders are initiated to achieve their goals and create societal-added value. The aim of this paper is to better understand the origins of 'entrepreneurial citizenship', and its meaning in the Dutch context of urban regeneration. To do this, we will review the relevant international literature and combine insights from studies on governance, active citizenship, social and community entrepreneurship and urban neighbourhoods. We will also analyse how entrepreneurial citizenship can be locally observed in the Netherlands as reported in the literature. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed