 He was a member of the Belgian Senate for the CVP (co-opted) from 1977 to 1981.He is a former president and member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, former president of the Vlaamse Juristenvereniging (Flemish Association of Lawyers) (1983–1996), president of the International Association of Procedural Law and of the Interuniversity Centre for procedural law, Chairman of the Commission for the Approximation of Procedural Law in Europe, dr. jur.h.