On 11 October, the roundtable entitled ‘Academic Freedom – Theoretical Perspectives’ took place at Leiden University's Academy Building. This event was organised as part of the Vidi research project entitled 'The EU fundamental right to 'freedom of the art and sciences': exploring the limits on the…

On Wednesday 22 July, Professor Maartje van der Woude will hold a webinar for Nusantara University (Indonesia). Her lecture is entitled ‘Governing Through Crises: Civil Liberties Under Pressure’.

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030, an effort to reduce the country’s reliance on oil, may open up new opportunities for Korea. Spearheading the way is Hallyu — the Korean wave, led by K-pop and dramas as a soft power to open new business opportunities in the Middle East, especially…

Ook Polen wil het recht op een tijdelijk afschaffing op asiel, zo maakte premier Tusk onlangs bekend. Hoe groot zijn de kansen in Brussel en vormt dit een optie voor Nederland? Mark Klaassen, universitair docent Immigratierecht, spreekt over de kwestie in het Algemeen Dagblad.

On May 22 eLaw's researcher Helena Ursic spoke at the international conference

The current rule of law debate in the EU occupies not only the mind of European policy and lawmakers, but also of legal practitioners on the ground. The Europa Institute, in collaboration with the Meijers Committee, therefore organized a Leiden Law Exchange (LLX) to facilitate the exchange of ideas…

On Thursday 21 February 2019, the successful event ‘Interaction between Legal Systems 2.0: Reflections at the halfway point’ took place. The day’s events brought together the ILS 2.0 research profile areas of ‘SOLID: Solidarity Under Strain’ and ‘Policing the high seas: maritime law enforcement’.

The Global Summit, which took place from 12-16 January 2021, is an initiative by Richard Albert, the William Stamps Farish Professor in Law, Professor of Government, Director of Constitutional Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and Founder & Director of the International Forum on the Future…

On Friday 12 September 2025, the Opening Ceremony of the European Law LL.M. programme took place in the Lorentz lecture hall at Leiden Law School. Following Dr Barbora Budinska’s and Professor Armin Cuyvers’s warm words of welcome for the incoming students, Dr Darinka Piqani presented two student pr…

The Executive Board proposes to take the decision to suspend the existing institutional student exchange programmes with two Israeli universities, and until further notice not to engage in any new exchange programmes with Israeli universities that have comparable links with the Israeli military (the…

The Europa Institute has invited Dorjana Bojanovska from Macedonia to visit Leiden Law School to conduct her master thesis research from 6 March - 31 March 2017. Dorjana is a student at the Comparative Constitutional Law program at the Legal Studies Department of the Central European University. The…

Marloes van Noorloos is appointed Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at Leiden University from 1 February 2025.

On 20 June 2024, the Europa Institute held its annual PhD Day at the Gravensteen Building. This event brought together PhD candidates in European law to present their research projects, share input from preliminary findings and engage in discussions with their peers and supervisors. The day was filled…

How does digitalisation affect the humanities? The introductory course for the Honours College Humanities Lab challenges students to reflect on this through the production of their very own short film.

Mark Klaassen, Assistant Professor of Immigration Law and member of the Dutch Advisory Council on Migration, explains on Dutch radio programme ‘Met het Oog op Morgen’ why it’s a bad idea to use Denmark as a model country for Dutch asylum policy.

Michael Ignatieff, Canadian author, university professor and former politician, has been appointed Cleveringa Professor for the 2013-2014 academic year at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Professor Ignatieff will deliver the Cleveringa lecture on 26 November 2013.

The EU Return Directive gives migrants residing unlawfully in the European Union the option to leave voluntarily. This is to avoid detention and forced expulsion. But the directive is too vague and can lead to unfair procedures and even human rights violations, PhD candidate Christian Mommers conclu…

On Tuesday 12 January 2021, the Leiden Law School thesis prizes were awarded at the New Year’s event.

This academic year 49 promising international students will start their master’s degree here thanks to a Leiden University Excellence Scholarship (LExS). The students, all from outside the EU, were welcomed in a special ceremony on 5 September. Who are they?

During an open debate in the UN Security Council on the topic of peacekeeping and human rights, the project

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has recently awarded a significant grant of 863,000 euros to the project proposal 'RESOCIAL' led by Dr Gianclaudio Malgieri, Associate Professor at eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies. This grant is part of the 'NWA Synergy Theme: Vulnerability and Resilience…

Exchange selecting courses and projects

The Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology’s ‘Vulnerable Groups and Inequality’ research project draws on a number of disciplines.

The Public Management and Leadership specialisation emphasises how the behaviour of critical actors – politicians, top-level bureaucrats, street-level professionals and citizens - is critical to understand and improve public governance. The specialisation blends public administration with psychology,…

The Dutch museum landscape is among the most forward-thinking worldwide, in terms of innovations in engaging diverse audiences and stakeholders. Building on the museum studies and art history programmes at Leiden University, the Museum Lab explored conceptual and practical aspects of the museum as a…

On 29 June 2017, Carl Mair will defend his PhD dissertation “Taking Technological Infrastructure Seriously”. The defence will commence at 13.45 hrs, in the Academy Building of Leiden University, Rapenburg 73. The supervisors are Professor A. Schmidt and Professor G.J. Zwenne.

As part of its plans to introduce a stricter asylum policy, the Dutch cabinet wants to expand checks at internal borders within the EU. Professor of Law and Society Maartje van der Woude tells Dutch daily newspaper NRC that this is a symbolic measure: ‘Border checks will not counter the right to seek…

On 15 June 2022 Professor Anthropology of Sustainability and Livelihood Marja Spierenburg was one of the invited speakers at the round table in the House of Representatives of The Netherlands.

Almost two weeks after the general elections in the Netherlands, negotiations between the leaders of the four parties who were expected to form a new coalition government are still not going smoothly. Ronald Plasterk, appointed as ‘scout’ to explore possible alliances, has said he will need one more…

Suspending family reunification of refugee status holders is illegal. That was the ruling of a Dutch court in a case brought by a Syrian woman with asylum status. The (temporary) restriction on entry for family members was one of the pillars of the cabinet’s asylum deal in August.

Leiden University, together with Utrecht University and Radboud University in Nijmegen, has received a research grant from the Covid-19 programme of ZonMw, the Dutch organisation for research into health care.

Dr. Jennifer Day from the University of Melbourne, Dr. Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh and Ms. Olivia Johnson have obtained a $30,000 (EUR 26.741) research grant from the National Geographic Society for a two-year interdisciplinary research project on 'Gendered Migration: Women, Evictions, and Power in Port…

Italy recently struck a deal with Albania to accommodate thousands of boat migrants in two reception centres in Albania. Is this not contrary to asylum law? Mark Klaassen, Assistant Professor in immigration law comments in a Dutch RTL news article.

Prof. Ton Liefaard and dr. Stephanie Rap (together with Apollonia Bolscher LL.M.) are involved in developing a training Toolkit and Manual for the project Improving Juvenile Justice Systems in Europe: Training for Professionals (JUST/2013/FRC/AG).

In a new Transforming Society article, Salvador Santino Regilme, Associate Professor and Chair of the International Relations Program at Leiden University, critiques the Trump administration’s US–China tariff war as a covert instrument of domestic class warfare.

On 30 June, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies of Leiden University (eLaw) will hold the annual Hans Franken Lecture. This year, the lecture will be held by Jan Kleijssen, the recently retired human rights director at the Council of Europe. The title of the lecture is: 'AI and Human Rights'…

Making migration a key campaign issue in the recent Dutch general elections is one thing, but turning it into actual policy is another. ‘95% of Dutch immigration legislation is governed by European law’, says Emeritus Professor Peter Rodrigues in Dutch daily newspaper 'Trouw'. In short: political parties…

On Friday 23 April, Jorrit Rijpma appeared before the European Parliament’s Working Group on Frontex Scrutiny. This working group was set up by the Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) in response to allegations of serious fundamental rights violations taking place…

The introduction of a compulsory coronavirus entry pass in the workplace is currently being considered behind the scenes. Dutch Minister of Health Hugo de Jonge spoke about this at the press conference on Tuesday 2 November. But such a measure is not without problems.

GroenLinks member of the Dutch House of Representatives Lisa Westerveld has put forward parliamentary questions in response to the dissertation by Maria de Jong-de Kruif, who was awarded a doctorate degree on 7 March 2019 following her research on secure youth care institutions.

On 2 and 3 October 2017, a delegation of the Child Law Department has participated in the 15th European regional conference of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect in The Hague.

In a recent article for the magazine Public Seminar, Santino Regilme argues that democracy across continents is being quietly usurped by a transnational billionaire class.

The peer-reviewed article by Salvador Santino Regilme, titled “Crisis Politics of Dehumanisation during COVID-19: A Framework for Mapping the Social Processes through which Dehumanisation Undermines Human Dignity,” has been named as a finalist for the John Peterson Best Paper Prize 2023 by The British…

Roughly arrested and subjected to extreme isolation. Using his experience, expert Jason Bhugwandass spoke to 50 young people who have spent time on Zikos wards (‘very intense, short-term observation and stabilisation wards’). He concluded that they’re ‘mostly locked up’ and leave ‘even more traumatised’…

LAPP student Heidi Kaarto and project leader Esther Kentin published an article on the right to regulate in relation to an EU ban on microplastics in a special issue on plastic regulation of Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law.

On 29 and 30 June, Ingrid Leijten participated in an international workshop held at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISJ) in Oñati, Spain.

The master’s programme 'Jeugdrecht' (Child Law) at Leiden Law School has been awarded the gold medal by EW Beste Studies. It is the only degree programme at Leiden University to have earned this top award. Professor Mariëlle Bruning says, 'it’s the best compliment you could ever get in your career'.

On 20 February 2018, Simone van der Hof will give a lecture on the use of AI in combating online sexual abuse of children at the Academy of European Law (ERA) in Trier during the seminar The Life Cycle or Electronic Evidence - Handling E-Evidence in Child Sex Abuse Material.

Mixtec researcher and cultural activist Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez (Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University) has been awarded a Medal of Merit during the World Conference of Indigenous Woman in Lima, Peru.

Camille Lefebvre has been awarded the John Peters Humphrey Student Fellowship in International Human Rights Law, by the Canadian Council on International Law (CCIL).