Silvis was born in 1953 in
Winschoten. He obtained a bachelor's degree in law from
Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1977. By 1979, he had obtained a master's degree in penal and constitutional law. Between 1980 and 1993 he was a lecturer at the faculty of law of
Utrecht University. Between 1994 and 2001 Silvis was judge and later vice-president of the court of
Rotterdam. In 2001, he moved to the High Court of Appeal in
The Hague, where he served until 2010 with a two-year hiatus between 2003 and 2005 as judge and vice-president. During his hiatus he worked for the Committee on Criminal Procedure and Legislation of the Dutch Ministry of Justice. He was Advocate-General to the
Supreme Court of the Netherlands between 2010 and 2012. ==European Court of Human Rights==