Do objectively correct solutions to ethical dilemmas exist? Or is ethics always a matter of your opinion against my opinion? How do you know what to do? What kind of thing is ethics anyway? Can you be an expert in ethics?

This dissertation, Layered Loyalties: The Natuurkundige Commissie in the Netherlands Indies (1820-1850), studies the Natuurkundige Commissie.

The Executive Committee consists of the following members:

Als vertegenwoordiger behartig je de belangen van promovendi en ReMa-studenten binnen de Onderzoekschool Mediëvistiek. Zo krijg je onder meer de kans om mee te denken over het verbeteren van de onderwijs- en onderzoeksactiviteiten van de onderzoekschool. Interesse? Nog vragen? Neem contact op…

Within Leiden University, we sometimes conduct research with laboratory animals. We only do this when when we cannot answer the research question in any other way.

Inaugural lecture

The controversial Disciplinary Chamber of the Polish Supreme Court is one of many other judiciary reforms which the PiS, the Polish nationalist ruling party, carried out since 2015. The Disciplinary Chamber allows for judges to be fined, degraded and discharged. Von der Leyen expects the highest European…

Intensive public debates have erupted about integration of immigrants in Europe. The influx of refugees from the middle east during the summer and autumn of 2015, the increasing visibility of immigrants throughout European societies, but also the widely publicized occurrences on New Year’s eve in Cologne…

The Centre for the Study of Political Parties and Representation (CSPPR) aims to serve as an interdisciplinary platform for scholars of Leiden University for research focusing on the historical and contemporary operation and functioning of political parties and political representation, with a particular…

Despite a lack of specific legislation on this issue, Dutch Minister of Justice and Security Dilan Yeşilgöz is allowing the national police force to experiment with facial recognition technology.

Animal experiments are not undertaken lightly; we are working with sentient beings. As scientists, we have great responsibility to handle laboratory animals with care. Read here how we consider and justify this.

The aim of this project is to develop, evaluate, and multicentre implement a blended form of cardiac rehabilitation that uses a theory-based approach to guide patients to full self-management.

Op 30 oktober presenteerde de Commissie tot Revisie van het Reglement van Orde, onder voorzitterschap van Kees van der Staaij (SGP), haar bevindingen aan Kamervoorzitter Khadija Arib.

The research report by the independent committee on the future of the work disability system in the Netherlands ('Onafhankelijke Commissie Toekomst Arbeidsongeschiktheidsstelsel' (Octas)) was published this week. While the number of people unable to work has dropped considerably, the system is still…

Urgent sociatal challenges such as global warming, international security and migration can not be solved by national parliaments. The House of Representatives loses control over problems that are being tackled at European level. The recommendations of the state commission are inadequate.

Om de twee jaar reikt de Koninklijke Commissie voor Geschiedenis de Prijs Henri Pirenne uit. Die prijs bekroont de auteur van een al dan niet uitgegeven belangrijke editie van teksten die betrekking heeft op de geschiedenis van België en als exemplarisch wordt beschouwd. Deadline: 1 juni 2023.

The Leiden Centre of Data Science and the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science are part of a consortium that will carry out research on making illustrated and handwritten archives digitally accessible. The project is funded by NWO.

This course in ethics is a continuation of the popular Nationale AI-Cursus from 2018. In which over 300,000 people have since participated.

The EU and Switzerland have negotiated a broad package of agreements that awaits formal signature by the parties.

In het onderzoek van docent Martijn Nouwen wordt voor het eerst aan het grote publiek blootgelegd hoe de ‘geheime’ Europese Gedragscodegroep er niet in is geslaagd om verschillende vormen van schadelijke belastingconcurrentie uit te bannen.

As of 1 May 2025 Dr. Vasiliki Kosta has been appointed member of the standing Committee for Freedom of Scientific Practice (Commissie voor Vrijheid van Wetenschapsbeoefening - CVW) of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

We would all like to live in a world in which individuals feel safe, conflicts are resolved peacefully and the interests of future generations are taken into consideration. At Leiden University legal scholars investigate to what extent public international law meets the needs of a globalised society.…

Intelligence and security services often operate in the shadows. Michael Kowalski calls for a clear, applied ethical framework as the foundation of intelligence work in a democracy.

NWO Chemical Sciences has awarded a TOP-PUNT grant to a research proposal of prof. dr. Gijs van der Marel (Leiden University) and prof. dr. ir. Adriaan Minnaard (University of Groningen).

In 2007, a spy from the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) planted a destructive computer virus at an Iranian nuclear site, halting the Iranian nuclear weapons programme. Dutch newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’ has revealed that the AIVD kept the crucial role of the Dutch spy a secret from…

Art historian and professor Kitty Zijlmans is on a mission: she wants to get rid of the notion that the West dominates the art world. To no longer put 'the West and the rest', but the exchange between ideas and cultures at the centre of art history. ‘You will see that there has been so much exchange,…

The Dutch Advisory Committee on Public International Law has, on its own initiative, provided advice to the Dutch government regarding the duty of third states to prevent genocide under the Genocide Convention. The Committe's advice addresses the legal uncertainty in political and societal debates about…

Leiden or The Hague? Dutch or English? These two questions decide which introduction week new students at Leiden University can best choose: EL CID, HOP or OWL.

Information obtained from Czech intelligence authorities has shown that politicians from several European countries, including the Netherlands, are involved in a Russian bribery scandal. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, comments on this in Dutch newspaper ‘NRC’.

Municipalities are increasingly attempting to solve problems without issuing decisions. A notification procedure (notification – investigation – application – decision) has recently been introduced that replaces part of the traditional application procedure. Ymre Schuurmans, Professor of Constitutional…

To discuss this question, chairmen, members, and secretaries of the Research Integrity Committees (Commissies Wetenschappelijke Integriteit, CWI) of almost all Dutch universities gathered at the Leiden Observatory on 21 April. Also present were members of the committees from Leuven, Brussels, Ghent,…

Over the past year, many students and staff members of Leiden Law School have been lauded for their extraordinary achievements. For instance: a grant received, an award won, or an appointment by a special committee. We have combined all these achievements in our Honours Gallery 2022:

On Thursday July 1, our alumna Lise Stork will defend her PhD thesis at Leiden University. It is about using AI to make sense of handwritten natural history archives.

Leiden or The Hague? Dutch or English? These two questions decide which introduction week new students at Leiden University can best choose: EL CID, HOP or OWL.

The Rein Dool painting depicting board members of Leiden University will be moving soon to the Reception Room in the Academy Building, where more people will be able to see it.

Leiden or The Hague? Dutch or English? These two questions decide which introduction week new students at Leiden University can best choose: EL CID, HOP or OWL.

Every year, more than three thousand businesses are declared insolvent in the Netherlands. The purpose of bankruptcy is to divide the assets of these companies among the creditors. However, the value of the claims of the creditors often exceed the value of the assets of the company

On Friday 6 October 2023, Peter Rodrigues delivered his farewell lecture ‘Ongelijkheidscompensatie in het vreemdelingenrecht’ (inequality compensation in immigration law).

A research team from Leiden University, in cooperation with Bureau Boekhoorn Sociaal-Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek en Advies (BBSO), is to evaluate Dutch counterterrorism legislation.

The research project ‘The History of National Security, 1945-present', is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Campus The Hague/Leiden University and the Netherlands Institute for Military History (NIMH). The project will run until the summer of 2013, when we hope…

The university is home to many pearls of research institutes that do not make the news every day. The Executive Board visited one such pearl, the Institute of Philosophy, on Tuesday 1 July. It resulted in an inspired conversation.

ELS@Leiden research encompasses a wide range of empirical-legal projects carried out within Leiden Law School from the perspective of multiple disciplines and methods. Here you can find the publications of our (former) lab members since the start of the Sector Plan.

Wearing All Stars and ‘just’ a pair of jeans, with a backpack slung over his shoulder. It was an informal Friday afternoon with Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary General, at Wijnhaven. Perched on a desk, he took questions from students in the audience.

On Friday 5 September, to mark our 450th anniversary we celebrated the opening of the faculty year together with the Leiden Revisited alumni event. Combining both annual events was a huge success, especially as staff brought along their family, partner or friends.

The BLRN members have published extensively in recent years. In addition to the BLRN book series, dissertations of BLRN members published in the E.M. Meijers Institute Series, you will find below a selection of our publications. For a more complete overview of publications of each BLRN member, please…

Below are some of the scholarly works published within the context of the Institutions for Conflict Resolution programme.

Many of our staff and students have won prizes over the past year. Others have been awarded a subsidy, or, because of their eminence in their field, they have been appointed member of an academic society or have taken on a position in the community. Reasons enough to be proud of them and to include…