This Saturday will be the first Kaiser Spring Lecture of this year! - A series of public lectures on Astronomy in the Old Observatory.

The moon exerts a pull on us. The Americans won the space race and were first to land there. In the Universiteit van Nederland, space law expert Tanja Masson explores the questions that this raises. Who owns the moon and the valuable resources that are found there?

Commercial parties offering space travel, space waste, claiming the moon, potentially exploiting resources ... It’s going to get busy in space in the coming years. But there are no clear agreements about this. Tanja Masson-Zwaan, Assistant Professor of Space Law, talked about the topic in Spraakmakers…

A huge shiny aluminium object stands in the middle of the Polderlab in Oud Ade. Are the researchers trying to make contact with extraterrestrial life? Certainly not; they are using the ’Moon landers’ to measure whether innovative forms of agriculture reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Fleur van Duin works…

Last Friday, more than a dozen people died during the storming of Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla. A dramatic incident, but certainly not the first time that refugees and migrants have used force to try to enter Melilla.

Assistant Professor Space Law Tanja Masson-Zwaan appeared as a guest on the Radio Weetlust programme of local Leiden radio station Sleutelstad FM. She talked about, among other things, who does the moon actually belong to and why we all would like to go there so badly.

It has been a coming and going of satellites and spaceships near the moon. It has not been this busy in years. There are currently more than ten moon missions in progress and another five are being scheduled for next year.

The work done during this PhD research, aims to investigate the effect of tidal heatingin the observability of extra-solar satellites around exoplanets.

As of 1 April 2025, Professor E.A.L.M.G (Elke) Moons has been appointed professor by special appointment of the chair ‘Crime Statistics’ at Leiden University’s Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology at Leiden Law School.

An international team of astronomers led by scientists from Leiden Observatory has for the first time characterised a dust disk surrounding a young super-Jupiter, which is either a giant planet or brown dwarf. They detected infrared emission from the disk which might indicate that moons may have formed.…

Wimar Bolhuis, lecturer in economics, has become a member of the Central Planning Committee (CPC), the independent supervisory committee which audits the work of the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB).

Space is becoming increasingly busier due to the launching of satellites and tourists. But no binding international agreements have been made since 1979. This is problematic, warns space lawyer Tanja Masson-Zwaan. ‘Everyone’s putting their own interests first.’

On 11 March, pharmaceutical company Janssen received approval to launch its corona vaccine on the European market. This made Janssen the fourth company to be given the green light by the European Medicines Agency. As Lead of the Janssen Campus in the Netherlands, Biology alumnus Bart van Zijll Langhout…

What is your preferred career path? Would you like to teach? Do you enjoy doing research? Or would you prefer a job that involves writing and editing? You will find that your Linguistics degree is a perfect preparation for the career of your choice.

With a Master of Statistics & Data Science you have good job perspectives: statisticians and data scientists are highly sought after in various industries such as food and pharmaceutic industry, in governmental organizations, and in healthcare. Qualification to become a PhD candidate is a definite…

Op deze pagina vind je de internationale universitaire netwerken waar de Faculteit der Rechtsgeleerdheid deel van uitmaakt.

PhD defence

From lectures by Robbert Dijkgraaf to a telescope on the ocean floor: during his double bachelor’s in Physics and Astronomy, Jelle Oonk discovered that the path to big cosmic answers sometimes runs through the smallest, hardest-to-catch particles—neutrinos.

Leiden houses the oldest university in the Netherlands, 13 museums, and 23 kilometres of canals with 88 bridges.

Subproject of

From the beginning of Galileo’s career, well before the publication of the Sidereus Nuncius, his contemporaries took pains to shape his reputation and fame. They were fully aware that their efforts would shape the course of his career; they also knew that they would profit from helping him.

Since 1990 Leiden University has awarded the William of Orange medal to individuals of eminent national or international social standing.

Irma Johanna Mosquera Valderrama is Full Professor Global Tax Governance, EU Holder Jean Monnet Chair EUTAXGOV at Leiden Law School (Leiden University), the Netherlands and Lead Researcher of the European Research Council (ERC) Funded Project – GLOBTAXGOV.

The International Institute of Air and Space Law, founded in 1985, collaborates with many world-class academic institutions.

In their vision trajectory, the Office for the Senior Civil Service (in Dutch: Bureau Algemene Bestuursdienst) communicated its plan to renew its vision on public leadership. Over the course of 2021, the Leiden Leadership Centre contributed as a scientific partner to the substantiation of this visio…

Promotor: Koen Kuijken Co-promotor: Henk Hoekstra

This thesis is about the study of hydrocarbons via infrared spectroscopy.

The chaotic years after the Civil War are often seen as a time of uniquely American idealism—a revolutionary attempt to rebuild the nation that paved the way for the civil rights movement of the twentieth century. But Adam Fairclough rejects this prevailing view, challenging prominent historians such…

The Children’s Rights Monitor provides a thematic overview of the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Netherlands.

Op zoek naar een bacheloropleiding economie met een sterke focus op publiek beleid? Bij de bacheloropleiding Economie & Samenleving leer je in tegenstelling tot traditionele economieopleidingen om slim en strategisch te navigeren binnen de huidige complexe, juridische en politieke context.

Akbik and Diessner expand the classic typology of police-patrol and fire-alarm oversight with two new categories: planning bureaus and ambulance chasers.

In films kunnen de meest wonderlijke acties plaatsvinden. Maar zijn die acties in de 'echte' wereld ook mogelijk? En in hoeverre houden filmmakers ons voor de gek? Tijdens het Leiden International Film Festival komen film en wetenschap samen.

During the bachelor’s programme Astronomy you will immerse yourself in questions about our universe. Questions such as: ‘what happens in a black hole?’ and ‘what is dark matter?’ In doing so you will learn to apply mathematics and physics to astronomical problems and you will work with computer simulations…

Dr. Joris Larik, Assistant Professor of Comparative, EU and International Law at LUC The Hague, has co-authored a report entitled 'UN 2.0: Ten Innovations for Global Governance 75 Years beyond San Francisco'.

Located at Leiden University's Campus The Hague, GTGC lies at the heart of one of the world's main hubs of global governance. The programme maintains active contact with many key policy stakeholders. Below is more information about our links to Global The Hague.

Underneath you find more information on how our faculty works.

The Dutch women’s movement began around 1967 with the discussion of the disadvantages that women faced in daily life. In 1968 the MVM (Man-Vrouw-Maatschappij) was born and played an important role as a public voice demanding female education programs and inclusion in the workforce.

Discover the new MSc in Public Sector Economics at Leiden University, offered entirely in Dutch. This program prepares future policy economists by bridging economic theory, Dutch institutions, and real-world policy challenges. Starting September 2025 in The Hague, it focuses on key issues like inequality,…

Is there extra-terrestrial life out there? It now looks as though we can sketch out an answer to this enduring question. Leiden Observatory is helping to build new instruments to find the most promising exoplanets.

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) and the Amsterdam Centre for Migration and Refugee Law (ACMRL) of the VU University Amsterdam organise a public seminar about global migration and refugee law in Egypt and Morocco, focusing on the International Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers…

Find out how the admission procedures for PhD candidates at LUCAS are structured.

Leiden researchers are helping develop safe COVID-19 vaccines.

The Advanced LLM programme has been taught since 2000.

Leiden was European City of Science in 2022: for a year Leiden was the capital of European science. Leiden University was a proud partner of Leiden2022.