Acknowledgements

I hereby acknowledge the financial support of the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen (FWO), as well as the institutional support of the Law Faculty of the University of Antwerp and of the Centre for Philosophy of Law of the Universite catholique de Louvain.

I am deeply grateful to my mentor, Pepe Esquinas-Alcazar, for his kindness, support, guidance and trust since we met at the FAO premises back in 2004.

I sincerely thank my PhD co-supervisors, Professor Geertrui Van Overwalle from the Centre for IT & IP Law (CiTiP) at the KU Leuven, Professor Tom Dedeurwaerdere and Professor Olivier De Schutter from the Centre for Philoso­phy of Law (CPDR) at the UCLouvain. Their invaluable support throughout my doctoral research enabled the long-labour birth of my PhD.

A special thank you goes to Professor Esther van Zimmeren, University of Antwerp, for her trust, constant support and dear friendship over the last ten years.

I am indebted to Andre Hupin for his careful reading of my thesis, as well as to Anne Liesse for her help in proofreading and formatting the present text. Both their interventions greatly facilitated the revision of my doctoral disserta­tion into the following book. I sincerely thank Dr Fabien Girard for his careful reading of and comments on parts of the revised manuscript. I am happy that our encounter has developed into a fruitful collaboration and a sincere friendship. I express my deepest gratitude to Anne Liesse (again) and Caroline van Schendel for their friendly technical support, as well as all the CPDR admin team for their encouragements. I thank Professor Marc Maesschalck, head of the CPDR, for his constant support throughout my research career.

I am extremely grateful to Charlotte de Callatay for her friendship and to her parents for hosting me during numerous short-term stays in their wonderful holiday house in the Ardennes.

I thank Amy Johnston for her help and patience throughout the edition pro­cess and Tim Hardwick for trusting and valuing my work over the last ten years.

I thank all my friends and colleagues from Belgium and abroad, the list of which would be far too long to mention, but I trust they will recognize them­selves. Interacting with them has tinted my personal life and work creativity with beautiful colours.

I thank my sisters, Severine and Valerie, and my brother, Mathieu, as well as the members of my larger family, for their support and help in difficult moments and for sharing joy and pleasure in leisure time.

Last but not least, I owe an immense debt of gratitude to my parents, Viviane Desmedt and Emile Frison, for their constant support, help and encourage­ments throughout my personal life and professional path. Being a (now) single mother academic requires solid social support to meet the expectations of both a demanding family life and a challenging professional career.

I thank my dear sons, Theodore and Charlie, for their incommensurable love.

Christine Frison