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Ernst Hirsch Ballin

Minister of Justice

Dr Ernst Maurits Henricus (Ernst) Hirsch Ballin was born in Amsterdam on 15 December 1950. 

After completing his secondary education, he studied law at the University of Amsterdam, graduating in 1974. He received a doctorate from the same university in 1979 for his dissertation on public law and policy, focusing on fundamental issues surrounding the work of the Advisory Council on Government Policy (WRR).

Mr Hirsch Ballin was a research assistant in constitutional law at the University of Amsterdam from 1974 to 1977. He was subsequently employed as a legal officer by the Ministry of Justice (Constitutional and Criminal Law Branch, Public Law Legislation Division). In 1981 he was appointed professor of constitutional and administrative law at the University of Brabant (now Tilburg University). 

From 7 November 1989 to 27 May 1994, Mr Hirsch Ballin served as Minister of Justice and Minister for Netherlands Antillean and Aruban Affairs in the third Lubbers government. He was then a member of the House of Representatives of the States General for the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA), a post he held until 1995. During this period he was also professor of legislative issues at Tilburg University. In 1995 he was appointed professor of international law at the same university and became a member of the Senate of the States General. He was elected as a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005.

In 2000 Mr Hirsch Ballin was appointed to the Council of State, and he chaired its Administrative Jurisdiction Division from 2003 to 2006. 

Mr Hirsch Ballin has held numerous other positions, among them government commissioner for the review of legislation, member of the Board of the Netherlands Atlantic Association, member of Committee 2004 (for the relationship between the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba) and deputy justice on the Central Appeals Tribunal and the Administrative Court for Trade and Industry. He has been editor of the Dutch administrative law journal Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Bestuursrecht and the book series European and International Law. 

Mr Hirsch Ballin again became Minister of Justice on 22 September 2006, this time in the third Balkenende government. On 22 February 2007 he was appointed Minister of Justice for the third time in the fourth Balkenende government.

22 February 2007