2023 was a busy year for the faculty. Many colleagues won awards and important progress was made on the Kernvisie. We said farewell to the previous Faculty Board and welcomed our new Interim Board. All this and lots more. Watch the video below for an overview of 2023 in a nutshell.

Following 40 years of research into the legal equality principle, Emeritus Professor Titia Loenen gave her valedictory lecture in which she took stock of the progress that has been achieved. She focused on equal rights for women and is cautiously optimistic, despite the current rise in conservatism…

Do young people trust the law? That is what HC Law students are trying to find out. Regular guest speaker and social worker Carlito Jones invited the students to the Bezuidenhout-West neighbourhood centre in The Hague to talk to youth workers and neighbourhood police officers: what do they run into…

What started as pioneering work, has evolved over decades to become a renowned institute in 2025 with an internationally acclaimed master's programme. 'Almost everyone involved in the aviation and space sector knows us in Leiden.'

Stefan Sagel heeft op 10 februari de Gouden Peer arbeidsrecht van het juridische platform Mr. ontvangen. De hoogleraar arbeidsrecht kreeg de onderscheiding op voordracht van twintig juristen uit hetzelfde rechtsgebied.

Organisation

Limburg lawyer Roger Cox has caused a legal revolution. With high-profile cases against the Dutch state and Shell oil company, he transformed the law into a tool to enforce climate policy. Leidraad alumni magazine spoke to him about a life defined by radical choices for a better world.

Over the course of eight weeks, twelve law students spent several days at the various sectors of the Court of The Hague where they learned all about the work of judges, judicial assistants and legal advisers. At the final session on 10 March, they shared their experiences.

Both Child Law (LL.M.) and Public International Law (Advanced LL.M.) score above average across the board in the 2026 ‘Keuzegids Masters’. The assessment is based on the National Student Survey, in which students evaluate their own study programme.

The Executive Board of Leiden University has appointed Bart Joosen as Professor of Financial Law commencing on 1 July 2023. The chair is attached to the Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law, part of the Institute of Private Law at Leiden Law School.

Until now, systematic discussions of gender, race and law have received little attention from Dutch law faculties, especially at the undergraduate teaching level. At the same time, public calls for discussion of these issues increases rapidly.

What happens when students are given the freedom to think outside the box? Honours College Law students got to try it through their 'unessays': an alternative final assignment. Their work will be on display in the KOG until 1 July.

Leiden Law School has moved up three places in the global ranking of law faculties and is now in 21st place.

The faculty Happy Holidays Drinks for all staff and student assistants was held on Tuesday 19 December. There was a great turn out and fun was had by all.

Leiden University hosted the 47th Telders International Law Moot Court Competition, which took place between 30 May and 1 June 2024.

The number of life sentences in the Netherlands is rising sharply. This is a clear response to the serious drugs violence and brutal attacks on our rule of law. However, criminal justice experts do not believe that this will deter future offenders from carrying out liquidations.

As of 1 May 2023, JPAO is continuing under the name Leiden Law Academy: a new name for the department that organises and facilitates our faculty’s legal postgraduate education (Juridisch PAO). A new event agency has also been added to the department to help organise the conferences and events of Leiden…

After more than five years, Professor Armin Cuyvers has handed over the position of Programme Director for the master’s programmes in Law to Marije Schneider, who started on 1 January 2024. Her vision, drive and experience mean she is well placed to fulfil the role.

Leiden Child Law Department at Leiden University in the Netherlands formally entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF)

Research

Vijf jaar na de overhandiging van ‘A History of Russian Law’, overhandigde emiritus hoogleraar Ferdinand Feldbrugge op 16 januari het tweede deel van zijn unieke overzichtswerk aan decaan van de Faculteit der Rechtsgeleerdheid Joanne van der Leun.

Leiden is the European City of Science in 2022. For 365 days our city will be home to this science festival, hosting lots of activities, lectures, workshops, excursions and exhibitions.

The Leiden University team won the 46th edition of the Telders International Law Moot Court Competition. Besides winning the final round, the team was also awarded the prize for Best Memorial on Behalf of the Respondent.

From Wednesday-Thursday 19-20 April 2023 the Stichting Bob Wessels Insolvency Law Collection (BWILC) invites PhD students from Europe and beyond to participate in the 5th edition of the PhD workshop on European/International Insolvency Law. Following four successful editions, PhD students are invited…

Research

Despite being prohibited by law since 1971, race discrimination continues to exist in the Netherlands. Why is this?

Insurers determine for themselves whether someone has committed fraud, impose sanctions immediately and hardly ever report it. As a result, police, prosecutors, and criminal courts are side-lined. And policyholders are sometimes left out in the cold. Bart Custers, professor of Law & Data Science at…

In what circumstances can EU competition law impose on a dominant firm a duty to supply a competitor? On 19 May 2021, the Europa Institute organised a virtual Leiden Law Exchange (LLX) Roundtable to discuss the European Court of Justice’s recent clarifications on the matter.

Professor of Law and Society Maartje van der Woude has been appointed as a Mercator Fellow at the University of Göttingen’s research group Mobility Rights in the Global Context of Multiple Crises, which studies human rights and migration in times of crisis.

Our Leiden Law Vlogger Daniëlle shows us what life is like at the KOG while keeping to all the coronavirus measures.

In 2023, a number of students from the bachelor’s, master’s and advanced master’s degree programmes won prizes for their outstanding achievements. Congratulations to the award winners and their supervisors who contributed to these successes.

Javier Aleuanlli, an Advanced Masters graduate from the Law and Digital Technologies programme at Leiden University, has been awarded Google's Diverse Copyright Thesis Award 2021 for his LL.M. thesis "Augmented Reality and Copyright: perspective under the EU framework". In this work, Javier mapped and…

Following a special donation, the Stichting Pro Juventute foundation is facilitating a new special chair in Educational Theory and Law. Through the chair, Pro Juventute hopes to realise optimum child protection from a coherent legal and educational perspective.

The Ministry of Justice and Security and Leiden Law School are planning to collaborate on a more structural basis. This is the outcome of a meeting that took place at the Academy Building in Leiden on 19 October. Those present at the meeting included the Minister for Legal Protection, Franc Weerwind,…