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,…

It’s time to announce a major development within the teaching and education we provide at our faculty: the launch of the Atelier pilot! Atelier will be a new teaching format within the bachelor’s programme in Law. The pilot will be conducted in the 2024-2025 academic year during the third block of the…

Researchers from Leiden Law School and the LUMC have received a grant for a joint research project. They will be looking into ways in which caregivers and patients can work together to come to a better decision.

A clear majority in the UN confirmed that states are obliged to combat climate change. 141 countries voted in favour, 8 against, including the US, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Associate Professor Jason Rudall explains the implications.

Research

On the second day of the EL CID week, hundreds of new students set foot in ‘their’ law faculty for the first time. Today, they will be introduced to the history and ways of the University. Exciting and fun at the same time. ‘Things are getting real!’

On 28 and 29 April 2022, the fourth annual PhD Workshop on European and International Insolvency Law took place, organised by the Foundation Bob Wessels Insolvency Law Collection (BWILC). A shared first prize was awarded to Gert-Jan Boon (Leiden University) and Theodora Kostoula (European University…

A day filled with sunshine and prospective students. On Saturday 2 March, Leiden University's faculties welcomed around 6,000 prospective students and 4,000 parents. Throughout this sunny day, they heard all about what it's like to study at Leiden University. Here's an impression of the event at Leiden…

Francien Dechesne, Associate Professor of Ethics and Digital Technologies, has been appointed by the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences of Tilburg University as Professor to the endowed chair of ‘Data and AI for the Rule of Law’, effective 1 November 2025.

LegalTech: the use of technology and software to provide legal services and support the legal sector. On 1 November, the GovTech Summit 2022 took place in the World Forum in The Hague. During the summit, technological innovations in the public sector were addressed from a number of different perspectives.…

The Dutch police face complex challenges, from organised crime and polarisation to digitalisation and new forms of crime. To deal with this effectively, they need innovation and intensive collaboration, says Professor by Special Appointment of Police Studies, Monica den Boer, in her inaugural lectur…

In a new blog, Simone van der Hof, Professor of Law and Digital Technology, explains why existing European regulations such as the GDPR, AVMSD, and DSA still fail to adequately protect children from the risks of social media and digital services.

Lots of employees celebrated special successes in 2023. Here’s a list of all those scholarships, awards and honours.

Fear of repayment demands is causing people to forgo benefits and financial support, even when they are eligible. This was one of the finding of Olaf Simonse in his PhD research on financial stress and the non-use of social services. His proposal: 'Let the government take the initiative.'

Starting on 1 February 2026, Nadia Sonneveld will work one day a week as the faculty's Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) officer. Here, she explains how she came to take on this role and her priorities for the coming months.

Just after four o'clock on Thursday afternoon 4 July 2024, Vice Dean Jan Crijns declared the 2024 Summer Festival in the Sport Café of the University Sports Centre (USC) in Leiden officially 'open'.

After three years of hard work, the students of the Honours College Law received their certificates on 22 November at an awards ceremony held at Scheltema.

The Faculty Board has handed in a proposal with the Executive Board (CvB) for the allocation of the starter and incentive grants.

Research

When under duress innocent suspects can make a false confession. Why is this? Legal psychologist Linda Geven will give a talk about this at the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition’s Brain & Law event. At this symposium (in Dutch) on 16 September you can attend talks on fascinating brain research…

In healthcare, gender and sex considerations are crucial because they affect individuals' health and disease differences. Yet, most algorithms deployed in the healthcare context lack close consideration of these aspects and do not account for bias detection. In their latest paper, Eduard Fosch-Villaronga,…

In the Pioneers of Leiden University series we talk to past and present students who were the first in their family to go to university. In this fourth instalment: alumnus and philosopher of law Ali Kösedag (1992): ‘Philosophising about equality before the law in the Netherlands at an early-morning…

What is writing? And what looks like writing, but isn’t? The Pseudo or Don’t pop-up exhibition explores the boundaries of scripts. The exhibition will run at Oude UB from 9 to 26 October.

Not everyone benefits from the increased flexibility in the labour market. EU migrant workers engaged at the lower end of the employment spectrum are falling behind. According to Daniel Carter, the legal system is at fault and in his PhD thesis he explains the reasons why.

Every six years, the research conducted at all law schools in the Netherlands is evaluated during a research evaluation. On 6 and 7 October, it was Leiden University’s turn to be evaluated. The aim of this ‘site visit’ is to allow the committee to get an idea of the faculty research climate, the research…

Jus post bellum, the body of laws and norms governing the transition from armed conflict to peace, has emerged as a crucial issue for international law scholars, governments, and all concerned with building a just and sustainable peace. The Jus Post Bellum Project, funded by the NWO and hosted by the…

‘Health, happiness and productivity. The focus is mainly on the latter, but to create a sustainable career you need all three.’ These were the words of Professor of Sustainable Careers Jos Akkermans at the opening of the Career Days. Students can visit these university and faculty days for workshops,…

In general, there are significant health disparities between people with low and high incomes, particularly in countries with an extensive welfare state like the Netherlands. PhD candidate Janna Goijaerts researched how the organisation of the welfare state affects the health of vulnerable people.

Last Thursday the Dutch House of Representatives held a debate on children being put into care when the childcare benefits scandal (toeslagenaffaire) had caused problems for their families. Four Leiden University academics were asked by the House to produce a fact sheet for this debate, bringing together…

Large pairs of planets thought to orbit each other without a star, do not exist after all. That conclude Leiden researchers, after extensive computer modelling and simulations. What the double dots seen by the James Webb Space Telescope are, remains a mystery.

The Effective Protection of Fundamental Rights Research Programme at Leiden Law School had the honor to organise the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research Annual Conference.