Practice Areas
For more than 35 years, François Tulkens has been focusing on the various aspects of public and administrative law in Belgium, in particular those related to the complex federal structure of the state.
He frequently appears before the Constitutional Court and the Council of State. The most important areas of competence are constitutional law (division of powers and public freedoms), administrative law, urban planning and environmental law, energy law and media law.
After studying law and philosophy in 1983, he obtained his law degree magna laude from the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) in 1986 and received the Jacques Falys Prize. He has been a member of the Brussels Bar since the same year and continued his education by participating in the Summer Legal Program organized by the Law School of the University of Wisconsin Madison (Wisconsin, USA, 1988) and by vocational training in cassation proceedings (1999).
François has been teaching administrative and environmental law at the Université Saint-Louis Bruxelles since 2006, where he also led work in the field of contemporary legal thought. In 2020, he took over the position of teaching constitutional law, a position he already held between 1999 and 2006. Finally, he teaches the Belgian public law courses organized by CEDRE (Centre d'étude du droit de l'environnement) within the framework of the master's degree of specialization in environmental law and public real estate law (Université Saint-Louis and UCLouvain). François also participates in several research projects organized by Université Saint-Louis and UCLouvain in public law, environmental law and climate governance.
He is a prolific author, has published and contributed to several books, and regularly publishes numerous articles in leading legal journals. François is active on the editorial boards of several Journals of Belgian Law, including the Journal des Tribunaux, of which he has been chief secretary-general since 2004, the Revue belge de droit constitutionnel (member of the editorial board since 1994) and the journal Aménagement-Environnement (member of the editorial board since 2007).
François has been a partner at Liedekerke since 2017.
Work Highlights
Acting for Engie/Electrabel before the Constitutional Court re. a 10 years extension of nuclear power plants.
Assisting Hannover Leasing in environmental permitting issues related to an office building in Brussels.
Assisting Interparking in various questions re. public procurement, permitting process, new environmental legislation etc. for new or existing public partings.
Assisting City Mall with the development of an extension to Les Grands Prés shopping centre in Mons, together with the development of a new IKEA store adjacent to the shopping centre.
Acting for the Brussels Region before the European Court of Justice, the Constitutional Court, the Council of State, and several Civil courts in the context of the air traffic nuisances in the vicinity of the Zaventem airport.
Advising Belgian Business Services in a dispute before the Belgian courts regarding the sale of an industrial site in Brussels, dispute in which arise several soil pollution issues (including the liability of a consultancy firm in the area of soil remediation) (environment, waste).
