Gerard Adriaan van der Steur (born October 7, 1969 in Haarlem

Haarlem

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

) is a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 politician and lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

. As a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy

People's Party for Freedom and Democracy

The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party located in the Netherlands. The VVD supports private enterprise in the Netherlands and is often perceived as an economic liberal party in contrast to the social-liberal Democrats 66 alongside which it sits in...

 (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie) he has been an MP since June 17, 2010. He focuses on matters of judiciary

Judiciary

The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes...

, constitutional

Constitutional law

Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....

 and administrative law

Administrative law

Administrative law is the body of law that governs the activities of administrative agencies of government. Government agency action can include rulemaking, adjudication, or the enforcement of a specific regulatory agenda. Administrative law is considered a branch of public law...

.

He was a member of the municipal council

Municipal council

A municipal council is the local government of a municipality. Specifically the term can refer to the institutions of various countries that can be translated by this term...

 of the former municipality of Warmond

Warmond

Warmond is a village and former municipality in the western Netherlands, north of Leiden in the province of South Holland. The municipality covered an area of 14.42 km² of which 4.42 km² is water, and had a population of 4,977 in 2004. Together with Sassenheim and Voorhout, it became...

 from 2002 to 2006 and has been a member of its successor the municipal council of Teylingen

Teylingen

Teylingen is a municipality in the province of South Holland, the Netherlands. It was created on January 1, 2006, through the amalgamation of Sassenheim, Voorhout, and Warmond...

 since 2006. In both cases he was respectively is also VVD fraction leader.

Van der Steur studied law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 at Leiden University

Leiden University

Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...

.

External links

House of Representatives biography People's Party for Freedom and Democracy website