Course Coordination
Coding Nature: Law and Ethics in the Age of Algorithmic Bioprospecting (Legal Challenge Project, LLB). This project-based course examines how international environmental law should respond to the growing use of artificial intelligence in bioprospecting. Students work in teams to analyse existing frameworks, from the EU AI Act to the BBNJ Agreement and WIPO-TRIPS, and propose policy recommendations for governing AI-driven bioprospecting. The course runs across 14 weekly sessions and culminates in a policy paper and team presentation.
Strategic Litigation in English Law (with Comparative Common-Law Jurisdictions) (Final Legal Challenge, LLB). A capstone course for final-year law students focusing on the digital dimensions of strategic litigation. Students engage with tech liability, digital-rights disputes, and surveillance litigation, developing case strategies that bridge doctrinal analysis with the practical realities of litigating technology-related claims across common-law jurisdictions.
Courses
At Maastricht University, I teach at both LLB and LLM level. I supervise LLB and LLM theses (10+ supervised) and serve as a PhD proposal evaluator. I hold the Dutch University Teaching Qualification (BKO).
- Coding Nature: Law and Ethics in the Age of Algorithmic Bioprospecting (Legal Challenge Project, LLB)
- Strategic Litigation in English Law (Final Legal Challenge, LLB)
- Foundations of Global Law (LLM)
- States, Markets and European Integration (LLB)
- Introduction to Law (LLB)
- Thinking Like a Lawyer / Legal Argumentation (LLB)
- Legal Philosophy (LLB)
Teaching Philosophy
My experience at Maastricht University has transformed how I see myself as an educator. Working in the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) environment reshaped my perception of my role from delivering knowledge to facilitating discovery. The CCCS principles—Contextual, Collaborative, Constructive, and Self-directed learning—are at the heart of my teaching. I encourage students to engage with real-world problems collaboratively, promoting deep, self-directed learning. By grounding experiences in real-world challenges, I hope to empower students to take ownership of their education.
This commitment to active learning extends to the tools I build. I developed the Legal Rule Tagger, an educational technology platform funded by an EdLab Education Innovation Grant, where students collaboratively identify and classify the elements of legal rules in regulatory texts. The tool embodies an iterative approach to legal education: students learn by doing, refining their analysis through repeated engagement with the material rather than passively receiving instruction. Version 1.0 is in use across first-year law courses at Maastricht; version 2.0 integrates large language models to provide real-time feedback, further supporting self-directed learning.
Teaching Experience
I began teaching in 2016. Before joining Maastricht University, I taught as a Graduate Tutor at the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), where I taught Human Rights, Constitutional Law, Property, Tort, Contract Law, and Introduction to Law. As a PhD Candidate at the University of São Paulo (USP), I served as a Teaching Assistant for courses including International Trade Law, Epistemic Foundations of International Law, and Public International Law.
At Maastricht University, in the Faculty of Law (Foundations of Law Department), I am responsible for instructing courses at both Bachelor and Postgraduate level. I am involved in course planning and co-ordination for several key LLM and LLB courses, and I oversee Legal Practice Internship Programmes.
What Students Say
“The teaching staff were in my experience, very good. Especialy my tutor henrique was absolutely incredible. He tutored perfectly, is very capable, prepared, highly intelligent and cared about the students. He is a great asset to the university.”
“Henrique Jerônimo Bezerra Marcos was an amazing tutor. Without his guidance and explanations I would have given up on this course.”
“I love how dynamic the Tutorials are being, and how invested our tutor is making everything as simply explained and comprehensible for us to fully grasp the underlying meaning of each reading.”
“I really appreciate that for each explanation you provide us a concrete example of something that you experienced. It is really helpful for the understanding of this course. I also find it really great that you take the time to use the whiteboard to summarize what has been said loudly in class.”
“I switched classes and as such had a new tutor Henrique Jeronimo Bezerra Marcos, who is very insightful and provided a lot of knowledge about the course but also provided tips for our overall study. Henrique was very helpful and as such tutorials were always a blast and provided us with the necessary information.”
“I am simply writing this email to express my gratitude for the amazing time you gave us during our weekly tutorials. Despite having an 8.30 am tutorial which is mostly dreaded by students, I believe it was due to your leniency and freedom in your style of teaching that our tutorials were always full of discussion and active. You were able to provide us with a great and fruitful learning environment that not only made us feel comfortable, but also allowed us to take ownership in the way we wanted to learn. Your calm and kind attitude as a teacher was truly outstanding.”
“I truly liked the manner of the teaching method of my tutor Henrique Marcos and his desire to help us with our struggles and to help us understand the reading materials and the content of the course in general. His guidance was one of the best things about the course.”
“For me, the help and availability I found in my tutor Henrique Jeronimo was very positive. Thanks to him we were able to understand concepts that seemed impossible with the reading of a text, and his attitude encouraged the students to try to engage with the subject.”
“Thank you for the best lecture in this course and your encouragements for participation in the tutorials.”
“I am really glad that our paths crossed and I hope to see you in Maastricht in the future!”
“I appreciated the content of this course as well as the guidance of my tutor. The tutorials were held in nice atmosphere where no one was afraid to discuss and ask questions which was supported by the tutor who always helped us to understand the topics and regularly checked if we all understand and engaged us in discussions. During my exchange this was my most favourite tutorial thanks to the group of students and the tutor.”
“I really liked the teaching style. It was one of the only courses that I enjoyed attending, because conversations and debates were fostered and encouraged in a very real and interesting manner. I felt that the things taught in class were the most useful in studying for the exam.”
Henrique Marcos 