Faculty Research Day 2025

Date

Thursday 5 June 2025

Time

14:45 - 18:00 hour

Address

Kamerlingh Onnes gebouw
Steenschuur 25
Leiden

Room

Lorentzzaal

This year’s Faculty Research Day (Toogdag) is all about the four faculty-wide research focus areas:

• Trust in institutions;
• Law and empirical research;
• Sustainability and law; and
• Technology, law and justice.

Sessions
Each theme will host its own 90-minute session. These sessions will run at the same time, so just pick the one that best fits your research interests. The parallel sessions will be preceded by a short introduction and followed by a wrap-up session, where we will share key insights from each of the four sessions. The day will conclude with drinks.

Aim
The aim of the Toogdag is to connect with colleagues from other departments and learn about each other’s research. We will explore ideas and topics that we can focus on in the coming years. Everyone is most welcome to join in, to get inspired, and to leave the KOG at the end of the day with new ideas!

Programme

Time	Programme	Location
14:45	Opening	Lorentz Lecture Hall
15:00-16:30	Parallel sessions
	Trust in Institutions	B0.20
	Law and Empirical Research	B0.25
	Sustainability and Law	B0.26
	Technology, Law and Justice	B0.30
16:30-16:45	Wrap-up	Lorentz Lecture Hall
16:45-18:15	Drinks	Global Lounge

The event will be in English. More information about the four sessions and how you can contribute is available below.

Note: for the ‘Trust in institutions’ session, please let us know in advance if you wish to give a presentation ([e-mail]).

Building on the successful collaboration within Institutions for Conflict Resolution (COI), which focused on the role of the judiciary in solving both minor and major conflicts, this theme addresses trust in a broader sense: citizens’ trust in government, and trust between institutions. During the Toogdag, we will explore questions such as: How can eroding trust be explained and how might it be restored? Is a healthy level of distrust actually beneficial for the rule of law and democracy? And what role does the reliability of information play?

The Toogdag is an ideal opportunity to give a (short) presentation on these or related questions and to get to know each other’s research better. Researchers who have not yet been involved in COI are certainly encouraged to present their work too. This will help us acquire an overview of ongoing research and identify areas the faculty should focus on in the coming years.

More information about this research focus area can be found here.

If you would like to give a presentation (5-15 minutes), please register via: [e-mail].

Building on Leiden’s national leadership in Empirical Legal Studies (ELS), this theme will support researchers at all levels: whether you are curious about empirical methods, looking to advance your skills, or are ready to teach others. At the Toogdag, coordinators from all institutes will give brief presentations about developments at institutes, both in terms of empirical methods being used and substantive legal insights those methods have helped uncover.

The Toogdag is a great opportunity to get inspired by specific examples of empirical legal research and developments across the faculty, and to share your own research (methods). The floor is also open to discuss cross-institute collaborations, and to identify how different empirical approaches and expertise might reinforce each other around substantive legal research themes. We will also take this opportunity to explore what type of activities, training opportunities or collaborative formats would best support our work with empirical methods.

More information about this research focus area can be found here.

Sustainability is about more than just the environment and climate. Increasingly, sustainability and human rights are gaining attention in the international trade sector, especially when it comes to abuses in supply chains. But who is responsible for this, and on what basis? At the Toogdag, John Ruggie’s three pillars form the foundation for discussion: the state’s duty to protect, corporate responsibility to respect, and the shared obligation to provide remedy for victims. These pillars will guide our conversations around themes such as food, governance, and labour, areas that are intertwined with environmental and climate issues.

Several colleagues will give short presentations structured around these three pillars, after which there will be plenty of opportunities for interaction and to pitch your own research related to sustainability. The aim of the Toogdag is to share expertise and to take stock of which sustainability-related topics deserve our focus in the years ahead.

More information about this research focus area can be found here.

New technologies bring major benefits, but they also bring potential risks. At the Toogdag, we will delve into two themes. First, we will explore the concept of digital legal vulnerability to see how digital technologies can drive power imbalances, leading to harm, exclusion, or technological dependence. We will consider how various fields of law (such as data protection, human rights, and consumer law) are connected. Next, we will examine the topic of human decision-making vs. technology, in particular the problem of algorithms making decisions that affect our lives (e.g. in courts, at borders, or with taxes) but without giving us explanations we understand.

The Toogdag is a great opportunity to share our research on the intersection between law, people, and technology. There will be two presentations, but everyone is most welcome to pitch their own research interests, and to address provocative questions or statements to stimulate discussion.

More information about this research focus area can be found here.

If you have any questions, please send an email to the Department of Research: [e-mail]

There is no need to sign up for the Toogdag in advance.