Antoaneta Dimitrova, Professor Comparative Governance at Leiden University, Honorata Mazepus, Assistant professor at Leiden University and Dimiter Toshkov, Associate Professor at Leiden University, together with three other authors researched which aspects of state capacity might contribute to opening…

In October, the Provincial Executive in Friesland reprimanded four civil servants who had signed an incendiary letter asking the government to adopt a more active climate policy. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, feels that the Executive made a mistake.

Lotte Baas is a PhD Fellow at the Institute of Private Law, Department of Civil Law, of the Faculty of Law.

Indonesia still has a long way to go before the country can truly flourish, was the message given by Indonesian Vice President Boediono during his visit to Leiden University on 26 March. He viewed collections in the University Library and the Hortus, and was presented with the William of Orange medal…

On 24 April 2025, political scientist Pawan Kumar Sen will defend his PhD dissertation,

Subproject of

How do urban residents in Brazil and the Netherlands (The Hague and Leiden) perceive the cultural benefits of urban forests? How are these benefits spatially distributed across cities? How do socio-demographic factors shape these perceptions, and do these differences vary between countries?

This article 'Shaping the European External Action Service and its post-Lisbon crisis management structures: an assessment of the EU High Representatives’ political leadership' assesses the role, influence and core aspects of the EU High Representatives’ (HR/VPs) “political leadership” in the context…

Do you want to make a good start of your (future) career? Like our page and stay informed!

Onlangs verscheen de handelseditie van het proefschrift van Jos de Weerd (Amsterdam).

The Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) will handle more criminal cases without involvement of the courts. The aim: more community service and fewer prison sentences. Jan Crijns, Professor of Criminal and Criminal Procedural Law, commented on the proposal in ‘Trouw’ newspaper.

Europe's open borders are under pressure: Europe has an increasing number of Member States with governments calling for tighter border controls. Several political parties in the Netherlands are also calling for stricter border controls, among other things, to reduce the number of asylum seekers. Yet,…

Under Dutch law, like German or English law, the violation of a statutory provision does not establish civil liability for damage caused to another person. Such liability requires that the statutory provision concerned aims to protect against the damage or, put differently, that the harmed interest…

This study explores public leaders’ organizational learning orientation in the wake of a crisis. More precisely, we study the association between public leaders’ public service motivation and their learning orientation (instrumental versus political).

Alain Ancery joined Institute of Private Law as a Guest Staff Member on 1 February 2020.

Circa twee miljoen Amerikaanse ambtenaren ontvingen onlangs een mail met een aanlokkelijke vertrekpremie, wanneer zij vrijwillig zouden opstappen. De vraag rijst echter of hier wel voldoende budget voor is. Barend Barentsen, hoogleraar Sociaal recht, noemt in Magazine Knack het ingaan op het aanbod…

It seems that the Dutch Tax Offices’ Benefit Fraud Scandal has still not come to an end. New skeletons keep falling out of closets which has resulted in a parliamentary inquiry. But is such an inquiry the proper instrument to make sure that no stone is left unturned?

Minister Judith Uitermark proposes that 125 seats will become electable through provincial electoral lists and only 25 seats through a national electoral list, according to Dutch RTL news. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, comments on the plan.

Professors argue for independent council for government policy

Monique de Deugd-Dijkman joined the Institute of Private Law on 1 May 1998.

Professor Henricus Joseph (Henk) Snijders is an emeritus professor of Civil Law and Civil Procedure at Leiden University. He was a full professor of Civil Law at this university from 1992 up to 2016, from 2007 both of Civil Law and of Civil Procedure.

This study offers a new view on public services in the early modern Low Countries and answers the following questions: who provided public facilities in urban communities and in which ways did public amenities change in the period between 1500 and 1800?

A civil servant in the Zuidplas municipality stole a saddle from an old bicycle from the municipal waste depot. Although the theft concerned an item of little value, the subdistrict court agreed with the municipality's decision to dismiss the employee with immediate effect. Lecturer in employment law…

To say that IT projects in the public sector do not always run very smoothly is an understatement. There are more than enough examples, from the IT project for student loans in the '80s, to problems with IT at the tax authorities, the judicial offices and the police in more recent times.

Daniel Peat will represent the ISDS Academic Forum, a group of over 150 academics whose research focusses on investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), at forthcoming discussions on the reform of the ISDS system taking place in New York.

These days we do not just have wars and civil wars – more of a global civil war, says Bashir Azizi, who received a PhD in April 2020 for his thesis on global citizenship. The second edition of his thesis was recently published.

On May 23 and 24, a masterclass is organized at Utrecht University on the theme of 'Reform'. Participating students will be rewarded 1 ECTS for preparation and presentation at the workshop, with the possibility of gaining another 2 ECTS to research and write a paper afterwards – for a total of 3 ECTS…

A discussion is currently being held about whether a demonstrating policy official employed by the Municipality of The Hague, who is also a local councillor in Rijswijk, can remain in office after she participated in Extinction Rebellion’s recent climate protest. The VVD party in The Hague claims this…

On 14 November 2025, representatives from several organizations across the publishing reform and research assessment reform communities gathered in Pisa, Italy, for a workshop aimed at identifying and advancing joint actions to strengthen both movements.

On 2 June, Prof. Mayke Kaag gave a keynote speech at the UN Headquarters in New York. The meeting was organised by the UN’s Security Sector Reform & Governance Unit.

Kohei Suzuki, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Administration contributed to the research project ‘Reforming Public Administration in Libya’. The brainstorming meeting was organized by the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) in T…

Max Bader has been awarded a € 300,000 grant by the WOTRO Science for Global Development of NWO for a project about the role of civil society in fighting corruption in Ukraine. The project will be implemented jointly with the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv.

Genevieve Noordeloos is affiliated to the Institute for Private Law as PhD fellow since September 2023.

This new handbook by Frits Naerebout and Henk Singor places the history of the Greeks and Romans within the larger context of the contemporary Eurasian world.

On 12 November, Clare Fenwick defended her doctoral thesis, The Political Economy of Immigration and Welfare State Reform: A Collection of Comparative Political and Economic Essays on Human Mobility and Social Protection. The PhD research was supervised by Olaf van Vliet and Kees Goudswaard.

Frits van der Meer and Gerrit Dijkstra of the Institute of Public Administration reflect on the increasing power of political assistants in the magazine “De Hofvijver”.

Frits van der Meer and Caspar van den Berg wrote an article for the Montesquieu Institute, triggered by the short essay Herman Tjeenk Willink wrote as annex to his final report as informateur. The essay calls for more attention to the feasibility of policies.

There was a brief disruption to several services; all services are now available again.

Thursday February 2nd, 2017 Prof. dr. Janne Bengtsson from Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala has given a lecture called:

In his new six-hour series, Africa's Great Civilizations, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. takes a new look at the history of Africa, from the birth of humankind to the dawn of the 20th century. One of the experts interviewed in the programme is our own dr. Sada Mire.

Rodrigues delivered a presentation at the 13th Network Europe Conference on 'European Integration Perspectives in Times of Global Crisis', which took place in Athens from 19 to 22 June 2022 and was organised by the Europa Institute Zurich (EIZ). His contribution was entitled 'Reform Scenarios for EU…

Rodrigues participated last year at the 13th Network Europe Conference on 'European Integration Perspectives in Times of Global Crisis', organised by the Europa Institute Zurich (EIZ).

22 November 2018.