At its recent Annual Conference in Berlin, the European Society of International Law (ESIL) appointed Daniel Peat, Assistant Professor at the Grotius Centre, as its next Secretary-General.

Academics regularly face threats, intimidation and abuse. The Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) therefore launched the WetenschapVeilig platform on 7 November 2022.

What has European integration meant for the role and powers of Heads of State? And what should it mean, both at the EU and at the national level?

ULLA, the European University Consortium for Pharmaceutical Sciences, is welcoming our tenth member: the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Geneva. The School, which is heading the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland (ISPSO) representing several academic institutions…

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the death Professor Hans Daalder (4 May 1928 – 4 April 2016).

At the annual conference of the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Wetgeving (the Dutch association for legislation) that was held in the Auditorium of the Ministries of Internal Affairs and Kingdom Relations and Justice and Security in The Hague on Thursday 6 October, Gert Jan Geertjens defended the draft…

For the first time in the 441-year history of Leiden University, students will be the keynote speakers at the opening of the new academic year. Their talks will focus on refugees.

While transparency has become the constant refrain of democratic politics, executive branch officials consistently seek to insulate their activities from public scrutiny.

The more opportunities a child has to learn and develop, the stronger his or her future position in society. Leiden University investigates how the brain picks up information, and how learning processes can be influenced positively.

Governance is a complex puzzle of organisations, people and divergent interests. Academic research in this field furthers our knowledge of the role of public administrators, of different organisational structures, of the people who work at such organisations and of how these organisations implement…

The Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law research programme for 2020-2023 centres around the integrity of financial markets during times of crisis and possible regulation to secure it.

The FutureMED Postgraduate Programme, a collaboration between Leiden University's MA in International Relations (Faculty of Humanities) and the Alwaleed Centre at the University of Edinburgh's MSc in the Globalised Muslim World, offers a postgraduate student exchange experience focused on the Mediterranean…

The Van Bergen Fund provides financial support to study associations of Leiden University for initiatives that promote contact between Dutch and international students. A good plan will receive a subsidy from the Van Bergen Fund.

The project’s main aim was to build a reconstruction of a prehistoric house plan, without using any metal tools. How effective are tools made of stone, flint, bone, antler and wood? What are the constraints imposed by the various building materials? How much labour do we need and how much knowledge…

The research in the framework of the Jean Monnet Chair is focused on the following points.

In 2024, many of our students and staff won great prizes and secured important research grants.

A vibrant chronological narrative of ceramic manufacturing practices in the valley of Juigalpa, Chontales, Nicaragua (cal 300 CE - present)

How are night spaces imagined, produced, experienced and narrated by migrant communities in Europe? This research project considers this question in eight European cities: Aarhus, Amsterdam, Berlin, Cork, Galway, Lisbon, London, Rotterdam. Authorities have historically wrestled with the issue of night-time…

This project aims to answer the following questions: how did the landscape and geography of the local surroundings of Chalcis impact medieval to early modern productivity, habitation, mobility and interaction in a wider sense? And where are such changes and continuations still visible in the landsca…

This project involves research into the oeuvre of the Sundanese sculptor Iko, who has worked for the Catholic mission in Java and has carved sculptures for a chapel and church in Ganjuran. The images were designed by the Catholic layman Jos Schmutzer and are characterized by a fusion in style and symbolism…

The Master’s programme Health, Ageing and Society trains its students to become academic Health, Ageing and Society professionals and engaged citizens who are competent and trained internationally and interdisciplinary. They are able to contribute to solutions for the challenges facing our ageing so…

Recent welfare reforms in the Netherlands show a trend of reducing welfare accessibility and increasing obligations. Although the effects thereof on directly-targeted economic outcomes, such as welfare dependency and labor participation, are often assessed, potential spillovers to other economic and…

Issues such as climate change, the depletion of natural resources or social inequality are too complex to be addressed from a single scientific discipline or by a single country. Leiden University has the expertise to bring the resolution of these enormous problems a small step closer.

In September 2023, we started transforming a under-utilised outdoor space into a greener and more biodiverse garden in which all students and staff of the Schouwburgstraat can relax and enjoy.

The LUCAS Dissertation Prize has been awarded to Dr. Renske Janssen for her PhD thesis Religio Illicita? Roman Legal Interactions with Early Christianity in Context.

The world is full of wars, and no war is without its dead. What happens to the bodies of fatal casualties of armed conflict? The winner of the faculty Jongbloed Thesis Prize 2015 is Welmoet Wels (Public International Law). Her thesis Dead body management in armed conflict: paradoxes in trying to do…

The nineteenth-century writer Nicolaas Beets and his son Dirk were thoroughly colonial, Nicholas without ever having been to the Dutch Indies, or any other colony for that matter. But they didn’t realise it. The new Scaliger Professor, Rick Honings, shows that writers’ archives are a treasure trove…

In the ‘Educatips’ column, psychology lecturers share their most important insights on teaching. This month: Anouk van der Weiden, together with a team of colleagues and students, developed a module on critical reading, application, and writing. 'Students often think: who am I to criticise a published…

From studying molecules in the blood of corona patients to developing a new concept for vaccines. The Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) has transformed many ongoing projects into Covid research projects. Hubertus Irth, scientific director of LACDR, talks about the role of his institute…

Van studenten verwachten we dat ze kritisch lezen. ‘Maar hoe dan’, zeggen ze. ‘Je leest een artikel en het klinkt allemaal logisch en overtuigend, waarom zou het niet waar zijn.’ Psycholoog Anouk van der Weiden wil studenten leren om artikelen kritisch te lezen. En meer, daarvoor ontvangt ze een Co…

A new bill is currently under debate in the Netherlands, advocating raising the prison sentence for manslaughter from 15 to 25 years. ‘This very serious crime (...) evokes feelings of disgust and insecurity in society’, Dutch Minister for Justice and Security Grapperhaus comments on the sentence that…

On the 10th November 2016, The Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law organised a symposium on “Ethics and Moral Hazard in the Banking Union” in the historic Academy Building of Leiden University.

What does European border security look like? On 14 April, Hans Leijtens, executive director of Frontex and former commander of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, is in The Hague for a lunch lecture. We spoke with him about border security, migration and the role of Frontex.

The SRON space research institute currently located in Utrecht will be relocating to South Holland. The institute, which constructs highly advanced technological instruments for astronomy research and for research on exoplanets, will relocate to new premises adjacent to Leiden University's Science Campus.…

The infection rate is rising again in the Netherlands, which means it may also be rising among Leiden University’s students and staff. How is the University responding? And what dilemmas is it facing? We spoke to our Rector Magnificus, Chief Security Officer and two other administrators.

Niels Laurens (37) has been appointed Executive Director at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs since 1 October. Because of covid 19, he only saw most of his colleagues within the faculty through a screen. Although the online introductions go well for him, Niels Laurens lacks personal contact…

What does Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker think about subjects such as student stress, ‘clean’ transcripts and the onward march of the English language? Law students fired their questions at Stolker during the Leiden version of College Tour on 27 January.

In recent weeks, Luuk van Middelaar has commented widely in the European press on the EU response to the corona crisis.

Researchers at the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology - Paul Nieuwbeerta, Anouk Bosma, Esther van Ginneken, Hanneke Palmen and Maria Berghuis - have received 800,000 euro from the Dutch Custodial Institutions Agency (DJI) of the Ministry of Security and Justice to investigate living conditions…

Geert Wilders is fiercely opposing asylum seekers' centres during his election campaign. Marloes van Noorloos, Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, commented in the ‘Reformatorisch Dagblad’ on whether he is guilty of incitement: 'Wilders’ statements do not explicitly refer to violence.'

Excessive remuneration of top executives often sparks heated debate in the Netherlands. Ministers are summoned to Parliament, where they then tend to wholeheartedly condemn the 'grabbing' going on at the top of the corporate sector. But that’s where it stops. Tackling excessive remuneration seems to…