In a Leiden Law Blog, lab member Niek Strohmaier and Marc Broekema describe how their research on valuation biases was used by the Delaware Court of Chancery in a recent valuation dispute involving telecom giant AT&T.

PhD student Gineke Wiggers has won the 2nd prize for her paper on User-Focused Ranking in Legal Information Retrieval in the PhD consortium of the 31st International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems (JURIX).

On 20 March, the final of the Legal Tech Challenge 2025 took place at Leiden University. After weeks of collaboration, brainstorming sessions and workshops on legal accessibility, five student teams presented their innovative legal apps to a jury.

NUFFIC’s Orange Knowledge programme, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, awarded a grant to the proposal of Jacqueline Vel, Adriaan Bedner and Leiden alumnus Fachrizal Afandi just before the Christmas holidays.

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.

Those who seek justice do not always manage to find their way through the legal system. Yet the Dutch Legal Aid Act assumes that citizens are self-reliant and can stand up for their interests in cases that are not legally complex. However, in the childcare benefits affair in the Netherlands, this proved…

A growing number of AI tools are being developed for the legal sector, to help professionals search lengthy texts or check court rulings. Leiden SAILS researcher Masha Medvedeva, an expert on the technical development of these systems, warns: ‘Users should know what’s under the hood.’

When a pupil applies for a place at a school and is admitted, a legal relationship is established between them. The exact nature of this legal relationship however is unclear. The law is silent in this area and case law provides no definite answer either. According to PhD Candidate Stijn Voskamp, contract…

Food security is increasingly under pressure due to rising inequality, climate change, and armed conflict. From 28 October, Leiden University College (LUC) in The Hague offers a seven-week course

Leiden University has written an advisory report at the request of the Ministry of Justice and Security on a legislative bill to improve legal protection in youth protection. The report acknowledges the improvements that the proposed legislation would bring, but also provides criticism.

Legal philosopher Bart Jansen teaches at universities around the world. In an interview two years ago, he spoke about his professional fascination for dictators and wars. Since then, the world has undergone major changes. High time for a follow-up interview.

Op dinsdag 11 februari 2020 verdedigde Clara van Dam haar proefschrift ‘Guidance documents of the European Commission in the Dutch legal order’.

In recent years, artificial intelligence has deeply permeated our society and the legal field is no exception. Bart Custers, Professor of Law and Data Science, spoke to ‘Mr. Online’ about AI and the law: ‘AI is currently a hype.’

The cargo lost at sea as a result of the MSC Zoe disaster should be considered environmental pollution and information about it should be made public. This was the case made by Leiden Law School’s Leiden Advocacy Project on Plastic (LAPP). Following their investigation, the government has finally decided…

The new scholarly journal ‘Voetbal- & Sportjuridische Zaken’, published by Boom Juridische Uitgevers, will focus on current legal aspects related to sport with particular attention for football.

In his blog, Armin suggests two legal tools that may jointly help avoid a hard Brexit: delayed exit and decreasing membership.

On 18 October, Armin Cuyvers, Associate Professor of European Law at the Europa Instituut, spoke at the Law School of Sydney University on reconciling political drama and legal realities in Brexit.

Although fighting the culture of top-down education and stimulating lecturers’ confidence to adapt courses to local context priorities is no easy job to complete in three years, the “SLEEI inheritance” already has three main components.

On 4 April 2024, a meeting of the standing committee of the Dutch House of Representatives was held. At this meeting, Anna Marhold, Assistant Professor at the Grotius Centre and Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, informed the committee about the economic and legal implications of a military…

Do people actually understand the constitution? This is what Jelle But, PhD candidate at Constitutional and administrative law, wondered. To find out, he conducted a survey among 1333 respondents. His research shows that lawyers and other legal professionals actually do not have a better understanding…

Nicolette Heijkant is our guest on the latest episode of Leiden Lawcast. Heijkant is an experienced lawyer who won her spurs working in the legal profession in Amsterdam’s business district, the Zuidas, and is now working for a legal-aid practice in Brabant. In this episode, we speak to her about her…

Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific, announced last month that it will seek an opinion from the International Court of Justice to clarify the legal obligations of all countries to prevent and redress the adverse effects of climate change.

Carlotta Rigotti, postdoctoral researcher at eLaw – Center for Law and Digital Technologies, has published a new article, Desire in Code: Legal Perspectives on Sex Robots and Consent, in Law, Culture and the Humanities.

On 18 March 2021, Clara van Dam gave an online seminar for Lund University about EU Commission guidance in the national legal order. The seminar was hosted by Professor Henrik Wenander.

Are there cross-cultural principles of law?

On 30 October 2020, Armin Cuyvers was invited to give the inaugural lecture of the European Legal Studies Centre of the Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta.

Professor Eric De Brabandere has been appointed as the new Director/Head of Department of the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, succeeding to Professor Nico Schrijver who has led the Centre for more than 12 years. Eric De Brabandere holds the chair of international dispute settlement law…

Starting in September 2024, the Europa Institute will host a new LL.M. on the Governance of Migration and Diversity [GMD].

Presentations and report!

Bernardo Almeida will give a webinar on Building land tenure systems in Timor-Leste on February 18, 2021, from 15.30 - 17.00. This webinar is organised by the KITLV.

In July 2021 the Leiden Empowerment Fonds (LEF) awarded a research grant of €13,500 for research into the history of maritime law in early modern times.

The cultural linguistic minority group of deaf people who communicate using sign language systematically experiences limited access to fundamental rights. Linguist Joni Oyserman identified this problem and has received a Meijers grant to fund her investigation.

The EU and Switzerland are negotiating a new institutional framework for part of the agreements that regulate their legal relations. More specifically, this concerns new as well as a number of already existing market access agreements.

At the end of March Jeanette Satink visited the Beijing Children's Legal Aid and Research Center.

The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, in collaboration with the ESIL Interest Group on International Criminal Justice and the Journal of International Criminal Justice (JICJ, OUP), is pleased to invite public international scholars, students and practitioners to attend a conference that…

On Wednesday 19 January 2022, the online mid-term review of the legal programmes took place on the platform Let’s Get Digital. It was an interactive afternoon in which 130 participants openly and critically discussed the educational strategy for the legal programmes and the faculty.

What practical steps can we take to resolve cross-border claims to looted art and prevent illicit trafficking in cultural goods? That's what the European Parliament asked Leiden legal scholar Evelien Campfens. Her advice: develop a registration system, issue art with a ‘passport’ and set up a European…

Russia’s invasion of Ukrainedramatically changed the geopolitical situation in the European continent. Former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell called the war in Ukraine an “awakening moment for Europe” and declared that it was “high time to reinvigorate the enlargement process…

Leiden Law School and the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies are very pleased to announce that Dr. Mamadou Hébié will be re-joining the Grotius Centre on the 1st of May 2021.

On 6 March 2018, the Dutch Minister for Legal Protection, Mr. Dekker, responded to the Ph.D. dissertation ‘Voorlopige hechtenis in het Nederlandse jeugdstrafrecht’ (‘Pre-trial detention in the Dutch juvenile justice system’) in a Letter to Parliament.

Gianclaudio Malgieri, Associate Professor at eLaw – Centre for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University, was recently interviewed on the Legal 4 Tech (L4T) podcast. The discussion centred on legal vulnerability in digital platforms, including challenges individuals face in asserting their fundamental…

For some time now, discussions have been held within the legal profession in the Netherlands about strengthening supervision in the sector and the establishment of a national supervisory authority ('landelijke toezichtautoriteit', LTA). Tom Barkhuysen, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative…

Prof. Ton Liefaard connected to around 150 legal professionals in India and beyond to reflect upon the COVID-response of governments from a children’s rights perspective.

It’s not something the police force wants to see, but it still occurs: racist and misogynist police conduct. Human rights specialist Dr Linda Louis has studied how technology could help police officers behave correctly and comply with the applicable legal norms.

The legal relationship between Switzerland and the EU dates back to the 1950s and 1960s, when Switzerland concluded its first agreements with the then European Communities. Since then, numerous other agreements have been concluded. In view of this long history of development, it is not surprising that…

Recently Cambridge University Press published dr. Jan Osters monograph “Media Freedom as a Fundamental Right”.

Dutch doctors hold social media platform Snapchat responsible for the illegal sale of vapes, and are threatening legal action. Bart Schermer, Professor of Law and Digital Technology, spoke to RTL news: 'Snapchat is not liable for the content of its users'.