On 19 May 2020, Xuechan Ma defended her thesis 'Moving towards Coexistence and Cooperation: The Spratly Islands and International Law'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. N.J. Schrijver.

‘Vrijwel elke kritische reflectie op AI en de richting waarin AI zich op dit moment ontwikkelt, ontbreekt’, zegt Reijer Passchier, hoogleraar digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat aan de OU en universitair docent staatsrecht in Leiden, in een opiniestuk in de Volkskrant.

A preparatory seminar in Bonn leading up to the Annual Meeting in Johannesburg in August of this year

Het Hof van Justitie van de EU (HvJ) doet uitspraak in twee zaken, waarin het Poolse Constitutionele Hof de Poolse grondwet boven EU-recht plaatste. Hoogleraren Europees recht, Armin Cuyvers en Stefaan Van den Bogaert duiden de uitspraak in de media.

Nederland en Europa liggen ver achter op de VS in de AI-markt. Beljaarts doet de oproep dat Nederland een supercomputer moet bouwen, om zich stevig te kunnen positioneren. Reijer Passchier, universitair docent Staatsrecht en hoogleraar Digitalisering aan de OU, waarschuwt in EenVandaag voor de dominantie…

Digitalisering raakt iedereen, maar speelt nauwelijks een rol in verkiezingsdebatten. In een opiniestuk in de Volkskrant pleit Reijer Passchier, universitair docent staatsrecht en hoogleraar digitalisering aan de OU voor politieke urgentie en visie op digitale vraagstukken.

In what ways does Atelier education contribute to skills development, active learning, interactions between students and staff, and connections between disciplines of law?

The third book in the Restatement of Labour Law Series has recently been published by German publisher Beck. This part addresses employment termination law. The book contains 36 chapters with an extensive overview of employment termination law in the different European countries as well as a comparative…

Last Friday, we celebrated ten years of the master’s specialisation in Labour Law at Leiden Law School!

Thousands of Ukrainian children have been transferred to Russia from occupied territories in eastern Ukraine, reports say. Is this, as the government in Kyiv has claimed, an act of genocide? Defined as an intent to destroy a particular group of people, the term genocide was first coined amid the horrors…

Een demonstratie in de Utrechtse gemeenteraad zorgde onlangs voor veel opschudding en leidde tot een aangifte. Volgens Rowie Stolk, universitair docent Staats- en bestuursrecht, ‘is het juist de bedoeling van zo’n demonstratie dat het ophef veroorzaakt en een beetje wringt’. Dit leidt er vaak toe dat…

On 18 June 2019, Neta Palkovitz Menashy defended her thesis 'Regulating a Revolution: Small Satellites and the Law of Outer Space'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. P.M.J. Mendes de Leon and Prof. dr. G. Molier.

Conference

From 18th -21st May, a delegation of the Europa Institute attended the 27th biannual FIDE congress in Budapest, Hungary.

Anthropology of Law in Muslim Sudan analyses the hybridity of law systems and the plurality of legal practices in rural and urban contexts of contemporary Sudan, shedding light on the complex relation between Islam and society.

This book examines how gender relations were regulated in ancient Near Eastern and biblical law. The textual corpus examined includes the various pertinent law collections, royal decrees and instructions from Mesopotamia and Hatti, and the three biblical legal collections. The book explores issues beginning…

On 12 April, Annemarie Drahmann, Associate Professor at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law of Leiden Law School, was one of the speakers at a debate organised by platform for investigative journalism Follow the Money to discuss closed government.

Reijer Passchier, universitair staatsrecht en hoogleraar digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat aan de OU, waarschuwt in HP/De Tijd hoe weinig controle we werkelijk hebben over kunstmatige intelligentie, terwijl machtige bedrijven steeds meer invloed krijgen op onze democratische samenleving…

For some time now, discussions have been held within the legal profession in the Netherlands about strengthening supervision in the sector and the establishment of a national supervisory authority ('landelijke toezichtautoriteit', LTA). Tom Barkhuysen, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative…

On 25 Februarry 2021 Hart Bloomsbury brings out a monograph by Frans-Willem Korsten: Arts as an Interface of Law and Justice: Affirmation, Disturbance, Disruption. Its working title was 'Annoyance' but that did not sell. A sign in itself; most struggles for justice have been considered as annoying.

On Friday January 13 between 13.00 - 15.00 (room C 1.04 of the Old Observatory) there will be another Leiden Socio-Legal Lecture, entitled 'Constitutional Ethnography, Counter-Constitutions, and the Study of Form, Sediment and Trajectory'.

Private businesses will probably soon refuse access to non-vaccinated persons in the near future. But this is more difficult when it comes to public amenities. Aart Hendriks, Professor of Health Law at Leiden Law School, contributed to an article in Dutch newspaper NRC saying that he anticipates that…

In recent days and weeks, experts have been falling over themselves to point the finger at the main culprit in the Dutch child benefits scandal. Although this debate is fascinating, equally important are the broader lessons to be drawn from the scandal in relation to constitutional and administrative…

PhD defence

Techreuzen strijken de winst op en gemeenten en de overheid zitten met maatschappelijke en financiële lasten. In Binnenlands Bestuur, luidt Reijer Passchier, hoogleraar Digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat aan de OU en universitair docent Staatsrecht de noodklok over deze disbalans.

Interested in the programme overview of European and International Human Rights Law? Please take a look at this page. The programme information is listed.

This course explores international arbitration as one of the most common methods of international dispute settlement. You will gain an in-depth understanding of international arbitration through the analysis of its role as a mechanism of dispute settlement, its institutions, the fields of law it is…

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) and the Amsterdam Centre for Migration and Refugee Law (ACMRL) of the VU University Amsterdam organise a public seminar about global migration and refugee law in Egypt and Morocco, focusing on the International Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers…

According to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, there are currently no plans to introduce mandatory vaccinations in the Netherlands. In surrounding European countries, however, the situation is very different. Professor of Health Law and deputy judge Aart Hendriks: ‘The idea that freedom rights are more…

Now the number of people with COVID-19 is increasing and we are faced with stricter measures once again, the question arises whether compulsory vaccination could be allowed.

The European Rule of Law Conference 2025, hosted by re:constitution at the Berlin Social Science Center (15-16 September), brought together scholars, practitioners, and civil society to critically examine the challenges facing democracy and the rule of law in Europe and to explore ways of shaping their…

On 15 February 2024, Alexandros Sarris defended the thesis 'International Law and Governance of the Arctic in an Era of Climate Change'. The doctoral research was supervised by Nico Schrijver and Freya Baetens.

Matthias Haentjens, Jouke Tegelaar and Dorine Verheij have recently published the chapter Financial Market Regulation and Supervision in the new volume of the prestigious The Law of the European Union (previously Kapteyn and VerLoren van Themaat).

Experts warn that large-scale use of foreign cloud services poses risks. Reijer Passchier, Associate Professor of Constitutional Law and Professor of Digitalisation and the Democratic Rule of Law at the Open University, says it could be ‘life-threatening’ to Dutch RTL news.

In reactie op de uitspraken van de Raad van State en de civiele rechter presenteerde Land- en Tuinbouworganisatie (LTO) onlangs nieuwe plannen. Rogier Kegge, universitair docent bestuurs- en omgevingsrecht, reflecteert op verzoek van de NOS op deze plannen.

Professor Anne Meuwese is calling on governments to show more vulnerability when it comes to providing information about how they function.

The organisers of the big protest march against government policy, held on Sunday in Amsterdam, want to bring preliminary relief proceedings against the refusal to allow British conspiracy theorist David Icke to enter the Netherlands. Icke was due to give a speech at the meeting of the organisation…

On 14 February, the second student edition of Mediaforum, journal of media and communication law, was festively launched with a symposium in the Academy Building of Leiden University. During the symposium, the student authors, some of them from our own ranks (Roosmarijn Altink, Roosmarijn Niesing and…

On 16 December 2019, Jan-Harm de Villiers defended his thesis 'The Anthropomorphic Hegemony of Subjectivity: Critical Reflections on Law and the Question of the Animal'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. P. Cliteur.

The government’s intention to be more transparent following the childcare benefits scandal is long overdue according to Annemarie Drahmann, Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law. One of the problems behind the benefits scandal was the lack of openness of the authorities. The government…

Profile Area Political Legitimacy, Leiden University

Legal frameworks are often a pitfall when it comes to citizens’ initiatives. Esmee Driessen, a guest lecturer at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law and an expert in citizen participation, conducted research on the support and facilitation of citizens' initiatives. In a Dutch journal…

Authorities in Denmark and Sweden are examining whether it is possible to ban Quran burning following recent incidents. These have caused tension in many Islamic countries as well as in the countries where they occurred.