The Groningen Centre for Law and Governance (GCL) is the result of an initiative by the Faculty of Law at the University of Groningen. The Centre was established in December 2008.

The Centre contributes to legal research into the relationship between public and private interests. Research focuses on the interaction between public and private law and the function of law in the regulatory state.

“Governance” can be defined as decision- and policy-making within a group of people, an institution or a system of institutions. This includes governing with or without a government and policy-making with or without politics. When speaking about “good governance”, “best governance” of an institution could be defined as the combination of a maximum of efficiency and a maximum of democracy, transparency, accountability, sustainability and respect for fundamental and human rights and for the rule of law.

The six programmes of the Groningen Faculty of Law can be regarded as the six sides of a cube with “good governance” as content. These six programmes address the development of national and supranational legal systems in the direction of good or better societal governance from six different points of view. 

The Groningen Centre for Law and Governance works in cooperation with the VU Amsterdam Centre for Law and Governance. Together these centres form the Netherlands Institute for Law and Governance (NILG).