Many students who graduated during the pandemic were unable to celebrate their graduation in style. To make up for this, they were given the chance to sign their name in the Sweat Room on Friday 26 May.

The Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) and the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) want to use private DNA databases in an effort to solve deadlocked murder cases. Bart Custers, Professor of Law & Data Science at eLaw, Center for Law and Digital Technologies, expects that this is permissible from…

The winners of the JSVO teaching prizes for academic year 2020-2021 were announced at the opening of the faculty year on 7 September 2021.

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…

The Leiden University Fund (LUF) invites researchers of all faculties to submit applications for the Leiden Empowerment Fund (LEF).

A new website has been set up that provides information about the government funded Law Sector Plan in the Netherlands, including the plans of the participating universities and developments within the agreed themes.

‘It is OK for employees to work flexibly, as long as they spend 40 hours in the office’, said Elon Musk in June 2022. Are we back where we started now that the pandemic is over? What is needed to make flexibility prosper? Helen Pluut is researcher in Organizational Behaviour at Leiden University and…

Brandon Valeriano (Cato Institute) and Aleydis Nissen (Leiden University) publish an article on the soft power of K-pop in The Diplomat.

This was the tenth occasion that the Moot Court Challenge Cup has been awarded! This time for the best oral argument at the Moot Court held in the spring of academic year 2021-2022.

Research

The European Space Agency (ESA) introduces the members of the European Center for Space Law (ECSL) on its website through interviews with its members. One of those members is Tanja Masson-Zwaan.

The Moot Court trophy has been awarded for the fourteenth time! This time, it went to the best pleader in the spring of the 2023-2024 academic year.

The Moot Court Challenge Cup has been awarded for the sixteenth time! This time, it went to the best pleader in the spring of the 2024-2025 academic year.

Our university labs are bursting with cutting-edge research, but how do you commercialise these inventions and discoveries or translate them into outcomes that benefit society? Professor of biological chemistry Nathaniel Martin started a spin-off company with his team. ‘When it comes to valorisation…

Like many others, Ruurd Halbertsma has had a rollercoaster of a year. His museum, the National Museum of Antiquities (RMO), was closed for a long while because of the lockdown. Visitor numbers picked up again from September, but it the next few weeks will be tense now the hospitals are full again. Halbertsma:…

World Heritage status comes at a cost to the local population’s human rights. PhD Candidate Sophie Starrenburg explains the drawbacks of poetic terms such as ‘the cultural heritage of mankind’.

Buurtlab 070 is a new Leiden University project in which residents, researchers and students from The Hague work together on climate, sustainability and biodiversity solutions. What do they expect of the lab?

Revelations about unacceptable behaviour and sexual misconduct in the TV and sporting world have rekindled the public debate about a safe environment. At Leiden University we are coming together to prevent unacceptable behaviour and provide proper care and support for victims. According to President…

Public procurement is not a hot topic for the average citizen. That’s a pity, says PhD candidate Erik Plas, who did research on the fair spending of public money: 'If a council project goes completely haywire, because it costs more than expected, it could even mean that local taxes will have to be r…

Holocaust scholars Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski will jointly hold the Cleveringa lecture on November 26. They were accused of defamation in Poland for a book they co-edited. How has this affected them? ‘This is an attempt to wear us down.’

Leiden Law Cast is a podcast made by Leiden Law School, Leiden University, for everyone who wants to learn more about current legal issues.

The English-language interdisciplinary minor ‘AI and Society’ explores the role of artificial intelligence in our society. The interdisciplinary nature of the minor is proving beneficiary for students and lecturers alike. We sit in during a class.

Staff from Leiden University are starting the Dutch universities’ staggered strike against the government cuts on 10 March. Follow the strike in this liveblog.

Het college van bestuur heeft Wim Voermans benoemd tot Universiteitshoogleraar. Hij gaat zich richten op duurzaam institutioneel vertrouwen.

From choosing the right tools to locking your screen when you go to get a coffee: it’s often the little things that help you work securely. With our campaign ‘Check it: work privacy and security smart’, in the coming month we are focusing on protecting our information and data, including personal data.…

Jeroen Zwemmer’s student days in Leiden ended in 2023, after completing two bachelor’s degrees, a master’s, a student board year, and an exchange semester. Now, he’s a legal policy advisor at a Dutch government ministry.

Interdisciplinarity is more than a buzzword in academia. It’s essential for tackling today’s biggest challenges. But what does it look like in practice? How can PhDs learn the skills needed to work across disciplines, and how can supervisors master the art of guiding them?

International prosecutors, for instance at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, investigate particularly serious crimes such as genocide. They decide, among other things, whether or not to prosecute. PhD candidate Cale Davis investigated how prosecutors come to such decisions and will defend…

Over 40 hard-working programme directors and chairs met for the first time in the Academy Building on 27 October to exchange knowledge and experience and gain new inspiration. Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl opened the meeting with an update on strategic developments in higher education.

How do you know if your idea has succeeded? The Queen coming to call a year and a half later might just be a clue. This happened to the Leiden student foundation ‘Door Het Geluid’, which promotes student well-being.

Arbitration law has grown into a ‘sexy’ area of practice about which students are keen to write a thesis and in which many lawyers specialise.

The results of the Personnel Monitor 2022 are out. Now the ball is in all of our courts. What does the Monitor tell us and how can we act on it? I hope that as an organisation we can get a good dialogue going as the first step towards improvement.

The Legal Post-graduate Training (JPAO) of Leiden Law School changed its name to Leiden Law Academy on 1 May 2023. A new name for the educational programme for professionals and the place to be for events and conferences. What changes will be made and what does the team hope to achieve in the coming…

‘What if we switch off all the lights one evening? That idea crossed my mind from time to time. And when I mentioned it to a taxi driver one day, he said: “Oh, you mean: lights out, stars on!” That’s not completely true, of course, because the stars are always on, but his phrase summed up the idea n…

20 November 2024 is World Children's Day. To mark this occasion, the UNICEF Student Team Leiden is organising a lecture on children's rights. We spoke to board members Rewina Teferi Hagos and Tugwell Chadyiwanembwa to find out what motivates them.

For over a year now, ombuds officer Marjan van Dasselaar has been devoting her efforts to a safer work environment at the university. What are her first impressions of this period? ‘People should feel free to call me sooner and more often, also for seemingly trivial situations.’

Do you know what to do if a rubbish bin catches fire, a student takes ill or a colleague falls off their bike? Our emergency responders do. They are ready to evacuate buildings, fight fires and offer first aid. Why not join the team?

The Young Academy Leiden (YAL) acquired six new members on 1 September. We talked to the new and former chair of this platform for young academics about what they have achieved over the recent period and what is on the agenda for the coming year.

Vincent Mul is deputy president on the board of The Hague Court of Appeal. Together with Jan Crijns, Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, he stood at the cradle of the collaboration between Leiden Law School and The Hague Court of Appeal. ‘By joining forces, we all benefit.’

‘Be yourself. Be as gay, queer, trans as you can and show the world you exist.’ These rousing words from Looi van Kessel marked the start of the third Pride Leiden for the university boat, with the theme: ‘450 years of being yourself’.

The Lorentz Center is a melting pot that is visited by researchers from around the world. ‘Miracles happen’ during the five-day interactive workshops at the Center. And there is an extra reason to celebrate the center’s 25th anniversary. On 28 April, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and Leiden University…

Young Academy Leiden (YAL) will change its board this month and welcome seven new members. Outgoing chair Julia Cramer and incoming chair Rachel Plak look back at the highlights of the past year and discuss YAL’s plans for the coming period.

The Kattekop childcare centre has provided day care for the children of staff and students at Leiden University and the LUMC for over 40 years. Time for a chat with Ellen Buschman, Kattekop director, about how things are going there.

One of our most engaged and expert scholars is bidding farewell. After forty years at Leiden Law School, first as a student and later as a professor, Niels Blokker reflects on his university career.

In families where more than two people assume the role of parent, not all of these parents have legal status. This causes problems, particularly with inheritance law, says PhD candidate Michelle Michels.

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eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University, hosted the first Horizon Europe BIAS Project co-creational workshop geared towards defining the requirements for identifying and mitigating diversity bias in AI systems used for recruitment purposes.