Leiden University would like to express its concern about the proposed Hungarian higher education draft law, which, if adopted, would make the functioning of Central European University (CEU) in Budapest nearly impossible. These changes would endanger the academic freedom vital for CEU’s continued operation…

The 18th Biennial EUSA conference, with the theme 'Beyond Sui Generis? Understanding the EU as a Comparative Polity and an Interdisciplinary Subject', took place on 4 to 6 May 2023 at the University of Pittsburgh (PA), USA. The Europa Institute was represented by Dr Moritz Jesse and Dr Darinka Piqan…

Victims who claim damages from large corporations for the harm caused by an infringement of competition law are often powerless in the European Union. How could collective actions enhance their position? Zygimantas Juska will defend his doctoral thesis on 23 April.

On 15 December 2022, the following thematic report of the European Equality Law Network was published: Christa Tobler, Indirect discrimination under Directives 2000/43 and 2000/78, for the European Commission, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union 2022.

On 1 March Armin Cuvyers was interviewed on BNR national radio on Brexit, the Draft Withdrawal Agreement of the Commission and the key Brexit speech by Theresa May planned for 2 March.

Paul Brakefield, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the Institute of Biology in Leiden (IBL) has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for his research. He will receive 2.5 million euro to develop his research programme over a period of five years.

On 28 February 2019 the Stichting Bob Wessels Insolvency Law Collection will hold a PhD workshop on European/International Insolvency Law to which PhD students form Europe and beyond are invited. It provides PhD students with a venue to present their ideas, but also the challenges and questions they…

Ticketmaster – the largest ticket sales company in the world – is under fire from both consumers and Dutch MPs. The reason is the sale of tickets for the Lowlands festival, where resale tickets are costing at least 100 euros more than the original ticket price of 300 euros. Political parties GroenLinks,…

The Horizon 2020 project ImageInLife has started on 1 January, followed by a kick-off meeting at the coordinating University of Montpellier at the end this month. This Marie Skłodowska-Curie training network brings together European groups that work on the imaging of vertebrates and offers fourteen…

Various projects at Leiden University have been awarded an Erasmus+ grant, an EU funding tool. This is a substantial boost to the internationalisation of our research and teaching.

From 13 to 24 June 2022, the Summer School on the European Union, the United Nations and Global Governance, supported by the Erasmus+ (Jean Monnet) Programme was held for the second time.

ELS@Leiden aims to give empirical legal research skills and interdisciplinarity a prominent place within the law school curriculum.

Applications are now open for the Summer School ‘The European Union, the United Nations and Global Governance’ (12 - 23 June 2023) for Master-level and PhD students. The activity is supported by the European Union’s Jean Monnet programme (Erasmus+).

Professor Barend Mons has been appointed Chair of the Commission High Level Expert Group

What does it actually mean to have a “human in the loop” when an AI system makes decisions about people’s lives? And is human oversight enough to prevent things from going wrong?

This series of publications brings together new material on wellconsidered themes within the wide area of Early Modern Studies.

Providing a valuable overview of regionalism throughout the entire continent, Regionalism in Modern Europe combines both geographical and thematic approaches to examine the origins and development of regional movements and identities in Europe from 1890 to the present.

This article examines Russia’s use of low-level agents in covert operations across Europe since 2022, analysing a dataset of 145 cases to identify patterns in recruitment, demographics and network structure using social network analysis.

In the Netherlands, various local VVD parties are calling for an asylum stop. Other political parties, Ja21, BBB, PVV and FvD, also see an asylum stop as the solution to the continuing asylum problems. Earlier, an opinion poll showed that a majority (69 per cent) of the Dutch population agrees. Is an…

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…

Professor Rob de Wijk (International Relations) monitored Donald Trump's recent visit to Europe. We discussed the outcomes of the different summits with the Leiden scholar. ‘This visit delivered exactly what I predicted: nothing!'

The Member States of the European Union do not intervene when a Member State disrespects the values of the European Union, Judith Sargentini, member of the GroenLinks party at the European Parliament, said at the annual Europa Lecture on 9 May in the Lorentzzaal of the KOG Building.

Intensive public debates have erupted about integration of immigrants in Europe. The influx of refugees from the middle east during the summer and autumn of 2015, the increasing visibility of immigrants throughout European societies, but also the widely publicized occurrences on New Year’s eve in Cologne…

This paper series is the result of two rounds of PhD workshops organized by the editors at the TMC Asser Institute and Leiden University in 2024 on ‘The legal implications of the EU’s geopolitical awakening’, with the generous financial assistance of the Municipality of The Hague.

In this article, Dimitrova, Gürkan and Koops presents a general framework for capturing and systematicallyanalysing critical junctures and degrees of change in EU policies.

Below are some of the scholarly works published within the context of the Institutions for Conflict Resolution programme.

The Dutch House of Representatives is deeply divided about the contested trade agreement between the European Union and Canada (Ceta). The economic figures are favourable in relation to Ceta, which has led to the removal of 98% of the import tariffs. Imports from and exports to Canada have both soared…

This article studies the perceived legitimacy of EU enforcement actions.

On 13 June, Professor Christa Tobler spoke about indirect discrimination at the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University in Lithuania.

More than 800 universities have called on the European Council to come to be more visionary in its ambitions for European research, innovation and education. They believe the current budget to be insufficient.

Professor of Islam and the West Maurits Berger wants to use citizen science to answer this question. On the futureofislam.eu website, he is inviting European Muslims to complete an anonymous survey about how they see their future and the role of Islam in this. He will present the first findings at the…

Recently, ICLON welcomed some 75 colleagues from 15 European countries for a meeting on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in research and practice. During this week, the focus was on learning, exchanging ideas and developing new tools.

The European Commission has selected a consortium of major European launcher and satellite manufacturers, operators and service providers, as well as policy and legal research centres and institutes to study and provide guidelines and recommendations on Space Traffic Management (STM). The IIASL of Leiden…

In an essay published in three prominent European newspapers, Professor Luuk van Middelaar takes a close look at Europe’s role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. ‘Europe shows plenty of political energy, but what is still lacking is strategic cool-headedness, in facing a nuclear power.’

Deadline approaching: Applications are still open for the Summer School ‘The European Union, the United Nations and Global Governance’ (16 - 20 June 2025) for Master-level and PhD students. Application deadline: 15 May 2025.

After the successful visit to Brussels of last year, staff of the MA International Relations specialisation European Union Studies, the Communications&Marketing team of Humanities and colleagues from the Law faculty joined forces to organise another great visit to Brussels this February.

Master's students in labour law Just Bakker and Tess van der Putten are to participate in the prestigious Hugo Sinzheimer Moot Court Competition. This EU Labour Law competition will take place in Vienna from 20 to 23 June 2024.

Labour law is constantly changing. Concurrently, the laws dealing with workers address fundamental issues which are invariably of major significance and value. The research carried out at the Department of Labour Law and Social Security focusses on both the (constant) changes in labour law and social…

As one of the most influential ideas in modern European history, democracy has fundamentally reshaped not only the landscape of governance, but also social and political thought throughout the world.

Visiting the beating heart of European politics, namely, the European Council in Brussels, is a great opportunity for students. I was lucky to be able to join the visit, organised by the Career Service and Alumni Office last Friday. The primary purpose of the visit was to familiarize us with the work…

The 7th Pan-European Conference on the European Union hosted from 5 until 7 June 2014 by the Campus The Hague was a success.

On Tuesday 1 December, LLM European Law students Pien Offerhaus and Carina van Os won the Migration Case Note Contest 2020.

On Tuesday 23 May 2017, Jasmina Mackic will defend her doctoral thesis ‘Proving discriminatory violence at the European Court of Human Rights’. The defence will start at 15.00 hrs, at the Academy Building of Leiden University, Rapenburg 73. The supervisor of the research is Vice Dean and Professor of…

After two years of COVID-19 induced hiatus, the European Union Studies track of MA International Relations organized another successful study trip to Brussels. Over the course of three days the students had a chance to learn more about the EU institutions, meet lobbyists and interest group representatives…

On 26 June 2025, Melanie Fink delivered a presentation titled 'Good Administration in the Age of AI: Explanation Rights and Human Oversight under EU Law' at the European Ombudsman.

Where does Europe begin and end? How have the European Union and its precursors decided which countries are eligible to join the community and which are not? Few issues are more hotly debated, more important for the course of European integration, or more consequential for individuals in and around…

Citizens, journalists and scholars notice that foreign policy in, and of, the European Union, is ‘de-Europeanising’. Political scientist Daniel Thomas (Leiden University) offers a theoretical exploration of the likely implications. He expects that it will become more difficult for the EU to achieve…

This dissertation investigates the impressive prehistoric cultivated landscape of the eastern part of West Frisia.