Salvador Santino Regilme received Honorable Mention for the 2022 Best Scholarly Article Award from the Sociology of Human Rights Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA). He won for his paper “Visions of Peace Amidst a Human Rights Crisis: War on Drugs in Colombia and the Philippines,”…

On Tuesday 30 September 2025, PhD candidate Jonathan Collins will defend his dissertation A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of the Far-Right Alt-Tech Social Media Movement in Leiden’s Academy Building. His work examines the communication dynamics of far-right communities on alternative…

Jelle van Buuren, Assistant Professor Institute of Security and Global Affairs, discusses why extremist-right activists can be found in the corona-sceptic movement in Dutch News Magazine One World.

In Slaving Zones: Cultural Identities, Ideologies, and Institutions in the Evolution of Global Slavery, fourteen authors—including both world-leading and emerging historians of slavery—engage with the ‘Slaving Zones’ theory.

Islamic primary schools contribute to the integration of Muslims in Dutch society, concludes Marietje Beemsterboer in her PhD dissertation. The schools offer children a sense of belonging and prepare them for Dutch society.

For decades, linguists have racked their brains over the question of precisely how the syntax of various languages is different. PhD candidate Martin Kroon has developed a computer system that brings us closer to finding an answer. His PhD defence is on 10 November.

Pigeons, zebra finches and parakeets. Carel ten Cate studied bird sounds. But not just that. Together with linguists from Leiden, he investigated parallels between birdsong and language. On 9 June, his farewell symposium was held to mark the end of his broad career. Well, the end? Carel ten Cate has…

In what ways do matters of cybersecurity affect the relationship between governments and citizens, have a bearing on (fundamental) rights and civil liberties, and alter the role and responsibilities of governments?

On 10 December Walter Burkard won the Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award 2020 for his thesis on climate change and children’s rights. The prize for the best master’s thesis in the field of children’s rights is awarded every year by Defence for Children and the Department of Child Law of Leiden…

In this article, Gerrit Dijkstra and Jos Raadschelders from the Institute of Public Administration, argue that Bosnia-Herzegovina survives so far on the basis of negative legitimacy.

Legal protection. What do those involved in youth care and child protection understand by this concept? And what needs to change to improve legal protection? This question was explored by researchers from Leiden University’s Department of Child Law. Their research fits with the government’s ambition…

The volume, Heritage Destruction, Human Rights and International Law, co-edited by Grotius Centre, Associate Professor Joe Powderly, and Dr Amy Strecker (Associate Professor, UCD), has been published by Brill/Nijhoff.

Ratna Saptari is since 2007 Assistant Professor at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology. She has always been involved with issues of human rights and Indonesian workers' rights. This August she retired. But she won't sit still. She continues her voluntary work and wants to…

This paper examines the need and possibility for developing online resilience-based approaches in response to COVID-19 vaccine conspiracies, often linked to the far right.

What Determines Perceptions of Bias toward the International Criminal Court? Evidence from Kenya. In this article, published on the website SAGE Journals in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, the authors Geoff Dancy, Yvonne Marie Dutton, Tessa Alleblas, Eamon Aloyo examine the attitude towards international…

Alumna Nadia Kadhim started in 2017 as a corporate lawyer implementing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at one of the companies where she volunteered. By late 2022 she had received both a Most Inspiring Women in Cyber Award and was on the Forbes 30 under 30 list with her legal start-up…

On February 20th, Gulnaz Sibgatullina succesfully defended her doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Gulnaz on this great result.

The Grotius Centre, in collaboration with Duke Law School, will be hosting the Duke-Leiden Institute in Global and Transnational Law from 16 June to 17 July 2019 in The Hague, the International City of Peace and Justice. Applications for the second edition are now open!

Colonialism Inside Out: Everyday Experience and Plural Practice in Dutch Institutions in Sri Lanka (c. 1700-1800)

In Dutch newspaper NRC, Pieter Omtzigt says he finds it 'unconstitutional' that he has no right to vote in committee meetings. Omtzigt believes he is as much a Member of Parliament as other MPs. However, since 2017, a breakaway group is no longer entitled to a proportional share of staff support and…

This Autumn a group of young asylum seekers will attend the course ‘Know Your Rights’, which is being developed by Pro Bono Connect, New Dutch Connections, law firm DLA Piper and the Leiden Law Clinic. For this course we are looking for 20 jurists who are willing to coach the asylum seekers.

In times of hardships or crisis, local people know how to deal with it using their resourcefulness. Although efforts are sometimes made by the government to help them, they are fully aware that community support is at least equally important.

The Power and Pains of Polysemy: Maritime Trade, Averages, and Institutional Development in the Low Countries (15th–16th Centuries) investigates the development of General Average and other so-called Averages in the Low Countries on the eve of the early modern period, showing how the various varieties…

From 27-29 August, the Conference of the International Society for Child Indicators (ISCI) took place in Tartu (Estonia). Prof. Ton Liefaard was one of the key-note speakers during that conference.

The center studies the many ways in which issues of law and justice are dealt with in art and literature with a focus on liminal issues and cases. These are issues and cases where law comes to the limits of what it is capable of dealing with and art and literature explore the implications of what is…

Mark Klaassen and Peter Rodrigues have published a journal article on the role of the best interests of the child in EU family reunification law in the European Journal of Migration and Law. They conclude that even though the Court of Justice of the European Union has often referred to the best interests…

Almost three years after receiving her honorary doctorate, Dr Graça Machel returned to Leiden University. Over the course of two days she spoke with students, researchers, and other interested persons, about human rights – particularly those of women and children – in a world in which these are continually…

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas last week. University lecturer Andrew Gawthorpe explains in an interview with ABC Radio what the embrace of 'Orbánism' means for the American right, and democracy more broadly.

On 3-4 December 2024, HIAS Greece and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung organised a roundtable that took place in Athens to discuss strategic litigation in the area of migration and refugee law.

On 3 March 2016 the book “The European Convention on Human Rights: A Commentary” by prof. dr. W. A. Schabas has been selected by The Executive Council of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) to receive the 2015 Certificate of Merit for High Technical Craftsmanship and Utility to Practicing…

From 23 to 24 February 2023, the Conference ‘The Future of the European Security Architecture: The CJEU’s decision on Passenger Name Records and beyond’ took place at the KNAW in Amsterdam.

This socio-legal study focuses on the implementation of climate change response laws and policies in developing countries with a weak rule-of-law environment, and their (unforeseen) effects on vulnerable peoples’ land rights.

Reports from Quebec media show the French-Canadian far-right organisation La Meute dealt itself another self-inflicted blow this week, with several club executives being forced out of the group and having a former co-founder, Patrick Beaudry, publicly declare ‘the ship is sinking.’

What’s the right dosage of medication for children? Assistant professor Elke Krekels and her colleagues discovered that for some medicines, you can determine this quite simply. On 13 April Krekels received the TOP-Publication award during the annual spring meeting of the Dutch Society for Clinical Pharmacology…

Sweetie 2.0 is a research project commissioned by Terre des Hommes on online child sex tourism and criminal law.

In the Netherlands, various local VVD parties are calling for an asylum stop. Other political parties, Ja21, BBB, PVV and FvD, also see an asylum stop as the solution to the continuing asylum problems. Earlier, an opinion poll showed that a majority (69 per cent) of the Dutch population agrees. Is an…

Three years on, and interest in Ukraine certainly hasn't waned. The auditorium at the Wijnhaven location was fully booked on Monday. Hundreds of people, including top military brass, listened to Defence Minister Brekelmans' speech. He pointed out to them: 'Here in the Netherlands, we're now living in…

What did colonial officials and missionaries think they were doing?

‘Can he do it?’ Since the remarkable victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 Nigerian presidential elections, this has arguably been the most frequently posed question in Nigerian politics.

U-Multirank is an alternative approach to international ranking of higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide. This analytical tool is user-driven and multi-dimensional by design. The current version (2016/2017) includes 1 600 HEIs. The ranking system compares the relative performance of HEIs (mostly…

Combining cutting-edge quantitative approaches with more traditional book history approaches, this new book offers the first history of medieval manuscript destruction in England from the medieval period to the present.

In this journal article, Dr. Joris Larik and Dr. Richard Ponzio put forward a broad-based pandemic recovery agenda that goes hand in hand with institutional reforms at the global level.

Immediately after the Dutch government’s press conference about the new coronavirus measures, a shopkeeper in Eindhoven hung up a notice in his window saying ‘No vaccination: no entry’. Even though he is not enforcing his own rule, he is receiving threats.

Melanie Fink has been awarded the APART-GSK grant of the Austrian Academy of Sciences to carry out her research project ‘No right without a remedy: Making EU fundamental rights enforceable’ for a period of four years.

On Tuesday 19 January 2016, dr. Nelleke Koffeman LL.M, assistant professor at the Europa Instituut of Leiden Law School, appeared as a guest on the radio show ‘Juridische Zaken’ (‘Legal Affairs’) for the Dutch national radio channel BNR Nieuwsradio to discuss the proposal by the Alliance of Liberals…

For two years, Ineke Sluiter was president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Now, she is returning to the university full time. ‘I always carry themes like accessibility, diversity and inclusion with me.’

Doing a PhD can be challenging. Moving to a foreign country can be challenging too. PhD candidate Ilya Kokorin, who was born in a small town in Siberia, faced both, while at the same time having to overcome a number of additional challenges and build a future post-PhD.