Empirical Legal Studies in Leiden focuses on building an interdisciplinary community of legal scholars and social scientists who collaboratively explore legal questions on the intersection of law and behavior using a variety of methods.

On 1 April 2023, Rowie Stolk of the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law started a new appointment for 0.7 FTE at Empirical Legal Studies Leiden (ELS@Leiden). ELS provides a platform that brings together legal scholars and social scientists to collaboratively explore legally relevant…

Abstract submission is now open for the international conference of the ELS Academy, in Amsterdam on September 1 and 2. For the 2022 International ELS Conference, we invite all involved in legal research using qualitative and/or quantitative methods to submit abstracts, that may focus on ongoing or…

Niek Strohmaier and Gitta Veldt will start as assistant professors within the project Empirical Legal Studies (ELS). Their appointments are part of the sector plan of Leiden Law School.

Recently, a new edition of the ELS bulletin was sent out. Furthermore, we are thrilled to share the Midterm Report of the ELS lab @Leiden with you!

Abstract submission is now open for the international conference of the ELS Academy, in Amsterdam on September 1 and 2.

ELS lab member Helen Pluut concluded this year’s lecture series on Empirical Methods in Legal Research. Helen discussed diary studies as an example of multilevel research designs.

On Friday 5 February 2021 the online conference of the Dutch Platform of Empirical Legal Studies (ELS) took place. This conference served as a platform to bring young, enthusiastic and driven ELS scholars together in a research community and enable them to learn more and discuss about empirical research…

This volume was edited by Jeroen Duindam, Jill Harries, Caroline Humfress, and Nimrod Hurvitz.

In a Leiden Law Blog, lab member Niek Strohmaier and Marc Broekema describe how their research on valuation biases was used by the Delaware Court of Chancery in a recent valuation dispute involving telecom giant AT&T.

Researchers from the Coherent Private Law research program have published an article in The Law Teacher about the state of the art of Empirical Legal Studies education in the Netherlands.

Throughout history, a large portion of the world's population has lived under imperial rule. Although scholars do not always agree on when and where the roots of imperialism lie, most would agree that imperial configurations have affected human history so profoundly that the legacy of ancient empires…

This project aims to answer legally relevant questions in the field of consumer law by means of empirical research.

How did “free agents” (entrepreneurs operating outside of the myriad of interests of the centralized, state-sponsored monopolies) in Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire react to the creation of colonial monopolies (royal monopolies and chartered companies) by the central states in the Early Modern…

Does the nature and extent of political communication networks, measured through the frequency and multiplexity of information exchange ties, play a critical role in the reconstitution and maintenance of the Chinese Empire?

On 1 and 2 September, colleagues of Leiden Law School participated in the very first International ELS Conference, organised by the ELS Academy in Amsterdam.

Craft your own empirical research in workshops of the ELS lab @Leiden!

Last Friday, during the ELS Academy Annual Event, Loran Kostense (VU), Sofia de Jong (Leiden University), Rieneke Stelma-Roorda (VU) and Anne Verboom (Leiden University) were awarded a €5000 research grant to carry out research on comparing the method of case law reviews versus court file studies. In…

Dr. Cátia Antunes and prof. Jos Gommans both edited and contributed to this interesting book, that consists of articles that offers a new insight into the macro and micro worlds of the global Dutchman in Asia.

On Valentine’s day, the ELS lab @Leiden launched the ELS Atelier, where a group of scholars met to see if they could find their match with a particular empirical method.

What holds people together and what makes them willing to fit within larger political structures? Our project examines this question in the practices of dynastic rulership in Eurasia ca. 1300-1800.

Kimia Heidary and Helen Pluut received the Best Paper Award at the Munich Summer Institute for their paper on consumer perceptions and personalized pricing.

On 9 March, the first edition of the PhD preconference day, for and by PhDs, took place at KU Leuven. This day was organised by the VSR, ELS Academy and the KU Leuven.

What are we referring to when we talk about ‘good work’? And what does it mean to be a good employer? Helen Pluut and Merel Cornax address these questions in a recently published editorial.

The ELS lab @Leiden is looking for colleagues to join the newly introduced topic group on Goed Werkgeverschap (‘good employment practices’).

A recently published article, Productveiligheid en aansprakelijkheid voor AI (Product Safety and Liability for AI), by Gitta Veldt and Tycho de Graaf examines the European Commission’s proposed Artificial Intelligence Regulation.

As per 1 January 2022, Niek Strohmaier has joined Kifid’s Arbitration Committee.

‘It is OK for employees to work flexibly, as long as they spend 40 hours in the office’, said Elon Musk in June 2022. Are we back where we started now that the pandemic is over? What is needed to make flexibility prosper? Helen Pluut is researcher in Organizational Behaviour at Leiden University and…

How did free agents in the Dutch Republic react to the creation of colonial monopolies (VOC and WIC) by the States-General? This project answers this question by looking at the role individuals played in the construction of an informal global empire parallel to the institutional empire devised by the…

The present volume focuses on the political perceptions of the Hajj, its global religious appeal to Muslims, and the European struggle for influence and supremacy in the Muslim world in the age of pre-colonial and colonial empires.

How geographical and institutional openness in Dutch Guiana fostered a unique colonial economy. This publication is part of the Early American Places Series.

The starting point for this research project is the notion that the human brain is susceptible to all kinds of fallacies and biases that affect our perceptions and influence our reasoning outside of our conscious awareness. Indeed, most people think they are merely observing facts and that they process…

How can the legal and socio-legal research skills of Indonesian jurists be increased in order to promote legal certainty and to strengthen the capacity of the judicial training in the country?

Jessie Pool wrote about this, among other topics, in her article ‘Maatschappelijk verantwoord vereffenen: belangenpluralisme bij de maatschappelijke taakuitoefening van de curator” (Socially responsible settlement: Pluralism of interests in the social performance of the insolvency practitioner’s duties)…

The central aims of this project are to establish the shapes of the various urban hierarchies existing in the provinces of the Roman Empire and (especially) to use the quantitative properties of these hierarchies to shed new light on levels of economic integration.

How did the Dutch Empire compare with other imperial enterprises? And how was it experienced by the indigenous peoples who became part of this colonial power?

When did the Mali Empire disintegrate? What does the Sunjata heritage demonstrate about the political situation after 1600?

This paper, written by Silvia D'Amato & Andrea Terlizzi, investigates the extent to which the European Union is strategically engaging against terrorism.

Leiden researchers from the departments Company Law and Business Studies will be collaborating with SEO Economisch Onderzoek on behalf of the WODC. The subject of their research project will be the financing of the insolvency administrator.

Intimate Legal Interactions (ILI) is an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars who share an interest in laws governing intimate relationships – such as marriage and civil partnership, divorce, birth, death, parenthood, childcare, sexual/romantic relationships, and caring relationships…

Interest group Animal Rights has started a test case to prompt the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) to tackle farmers who do not adequately protect their livestock against wolves. The test case concerns a rejected enforcement request to the NVWA. In it, the NVWA were called…