From April 2022, Professor Paul Nieuwbeerta will be working one day a week as affiliated professor for Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS)). He is Professor of Criminology at the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, Leiden University.

Not only companies go bankrupt, many people do too. Are bankruptcies beneficial for natural persons, and do they give people the new start they need? Leiden University will examine these questions in collaboration with SEO Amsterdam Economics.

Finance

Cuts in the prison system threaten to be at the expense of security, including that of society, writes university lecturer Esther van Ginneken in an opinion piece in Dutch newspaper NRC.

De AIVD gebruikt omstreden hacksoftware van de Israëlische leverancier NSO Group, meldde de Volkskrant. In 2019 zou de telefoon van topcriminineel Ridouan Taghi er mee gehackt zijn.

Security

Leiden Law School’s International Institute of Air and Space Law visited key European aviation stakeholders in Brussels where IIASL staff and students were able to engage with those directly involved in ensuring that the EU aviation sector is safe, resilient and sustainable.

Organisation

In an interview with Jaap van den Herik, Professor emeritus Law and IT, legal magazine Mr. writes that The Hague municipality wants to attract more legal tech start-ups. The municipality has therefore commissioned the Leiden Centre of Data Science (LCDS) of Leiden University to conduct a study into…

International Day of Education 2024 is dedicated to the role of education in countering hate speech. Assistant Professor Michael Klos says, 'When people are constantly derided online and that goes unpunished, they may start to withdraw from public discourse.'

Is scientific research useful? In his dissertation, Jorrit Smit argues that in order to answer this question one should not look at, for example, prominent scholars or influential organisations, but at places where knowledge exchange and co-creation take place. Promotion 6 May.

The Dutch conservative VVD party plans to make the right to family reunification more difficult for people with temporary residence permits. In Germany, this restriction led to several lawsuits which were won by status holders. Mark Klaassen, Assistant Professor in Migration Law, believes this is a…

In the current political situation of Bulgaria, it seems that a long-term caretaker government is the only viable option at the moment. Dimiter Toshkov, Antoaneta Dimitrova and Bernard Steunenberg of FGGA analyse what the Bulgarian caretaker government can learn from its Dutch counterpart.

The results of the 2025 university elections are in. Who will represent us in the participation organs?

eLaw is Proud to announce that our colleague Dr Constanta Rosca successfully defended her PhD thesis 'Digital Arms for Digital Consumer Harms: Mapping Legal and Technical Solutions for Dark Patterns in EU Consumer Law' on Monday 2 December 2024 at her alma mater, Maastricht University Faculty of Law…

Leiden University’s Rector Magnificus, Professor Hester Bijl, has been reappointed for a second term by the Board of Governors.

Lukas Milevski is a lecturer in International Studies at the Institute for History. He introduces himself.

On Tuesday 27 May a first meeting was held in response to the demonstration and occupation at the Wijnhaven building on 6 May. The aim was to explore how the university can balance the fundamental right to protest with ensuring a safe environment for all students and staff.

Organisation

Leiden University is going to partner with the Asian Development Bank, a bank committed to regional development. President of the Executive Board Annetje Ottow signed a memorandum of understanding on this unique partnership in Manila on 27 April.

Joop Schaye, Professor of The formation of galaxies, has been elected as a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). He will be officially inaugurated on 29 September.

On September 16th, 2024, Dr Arjan Louwen was inaugurated to the Young Academy Leiden. This platform serves to bring young, enthusiastic and driven early career (post-PhD) academics together. ‘I find it a really inspiring and welcoming group.’

Poama and Theuns co-wrote an opinion piece on why voting in prison should be mandatory worldwide. It appeared on National Interest's website on February 12.

Our own Dr. Martin Berger has been accepted as a member of the Young Academy Leiden! He is thrilled with his appointment. ‘I am honored to be accepted as a member of the Young Academy Leiden and am looking forward to working together with other scholars from across the University.’

Frans de Haas, professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy and Director of the Dutch Research School of Philosophy, will join the management team of the MI on a temporary basis, in any event until 1 January 2022, in the role of Scientific Director-Change Manager.

Professor of Media Law and Information Society Tarlach McGonagle is concerned about the increase in online disinformation and hate speech. He argues that human rights should guide new policies for the online world. McGonagle will give his inaugural lecture on 9 May.

How do you combine the growth of wind energy with the protection of vulnerable seabirds? With her master’s thesis on this delicate balance, Sofie Hajer won the 2025 Unilever Research Prize. Her work provides new insights into how ecology and policy can strengthen each other.

Good news for Linguistics alumna Anne-Mieke Thieme, who has won the thesis prize awarded by the European Federation of National Institutions for Language (EFNIL). ‘I emailed my thesis supervisor right away.’

What are you supposed to do if something goes or has gone wrong? Whether it be a break-in, an accident or an unsafe situation of any other kind, or data breach or cyber-attack; please read how to report each type of incident below.

Are you planning to go abroad for work for more than one month? Do you have some ancillary activities abroad? Or are you planning to move abroad? If you are going abroad on behalf of Leiden University, it is important to make the necessary arrangements for working there.

Workshop

Should Leiden University cut its ties with the fossil fuel industry forthwith? This was the main question in a debate between students and staff. The answer was clearer for some than for others.

Postdoctoral researcher Joost de Moor, who joined the interdisciplinary Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) initiative at Leiden University since April 2021, will spend 50% of his time doing research for the project "The necessary and the possible: How social movements articulate,…

After 2.5 years as defence minister, it is time for Kajsa Ollongen to hand over the baton. In front of a packed audience, she gave her farewell speech at Leiden University in The Hague on Tuesday, which included personal lessons and memories, from sleeping on the ground with the prime minister to the…

Going beyond gender diversiteit en inclusie wetenschap

On 3 November 2022, Mariëlle Bruning, Professor of Children and the Law, spoke as an expert on child protection at a roundtable discussion with Dutch Lower House members of the Standing Committee on Justice and Security.

Education, ICT

Acquiring external funding for research is becoming increasingly important. Proper support for applying for research grants is essential in this process. As of December, the team of the Meijers Research Institute, responsible for the organisation and quality assurance of research at our faculty, will…

The Netherlands has DigiD, Portugal ‘de Cartão de Cidadão’, and Ireland MyGovID. Europe now wants one uniform digital identity card - the same for all Member States. For the Dutch government, the European successor to DigiD is a prestige project. State Secretary Van Huffelen wants to roll out an app…

On Thursday 1 February, the symposium ‘On interdisciplinary collaboration: How do we foster connections?’ will take place. The event will discuss lessons learned, but also look at the future. An essential event for every Leiden researcher who is involved in an interdisciplinary collaboration, or would…

In 2007, a spy from the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) planted a destructive computer virus at an Iranian nuclear site, halting the Iranian nuclear weapons programme. Dutch newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’ has revealed that the AIVD kept the crucial role of the Dutch spy a secret from…

This month, the first part of the quality assurance audit (ITK) took place. A team of auditors from the Nederlands-Vlaamse Accreditatie Organisatie (NVAO) visited us to review how we ensure quality in education and how this aligns with our overall vision.

After the new government announced its plans to cut expenditure on academic education, the Faculty of Humanities launched the flash campaign ‘Stop the Catastrophic Cuts to Universities!’. Now academics across the university have been explaining why their discipline is needed.

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.

Leiden University has published a research report on the working of the Temporary Act on the Transparency of Fast-track Liquidation in the Netherlands. The Act aimed to facilitate faster and more transparent business termination. Has this been achieved?

Researchers from Leiden University, together with SEO Amsterdam Economics, have been chosen to evaluate the Dutch Telecommunications Sector (Undesirable Control) Act and the Investments, Mergers and Acquisitions (Security Screening) Act.

ICT