For Dutch politician Pieter Omtzigt, the PVV’s unconstitutional party manifesto remains a stumbling block to form a coalition. Referring to a study conducted by Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, Marc Chavannes sets out the options on Dutch news website De Corresponden…

Esteban Szmulewicz, PhD candidate at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law of Leiden University and expert on decentralisation issues, gave an online presentation of his research before the subcommittee on Political System, Constitutional Reform and Form of State in Chile and reported…

This paper examines the need and possibility for developing online resilience-based approaches in response to COVID-19 vaccine conspiracies, often linked to the far right.

This focus area adresses the social context of health and well-being, with a particular emphasis on social inequality.

The Team International Relations and European Studies addresses the interconnections and interdependence of contemporary global political, economic, security and culture from a multidisciplinary perspective rooted in the humanities. More specifically it is concerned with the study of international relations…

Public procurement is not a hot topic for the average citizen. That’s a pity, says PhD candidate Erik Plas, who did research on the fair spending of public money: 'If a council project goes completely haywire, because it costs more than expected, it could even mean that local taxes will have to be r…

The interdisciplinary network Faith in Democracy (FID) studies the religious, sometimes even totalitarian, assumptions behind the concept of

Book by Soledad Valdivia Rivera

Southern Africa has a rich tradition of social history, one inspired by the tumultuous changes that have regularly convulsed the region from the 1780s onwards. Scholars have always sought to understand what these changes meant for everyday life and emphasised a perspective of marginal groups, how these…

On 28 June, Jakob Tobing defended the thesis 'The essence of the 1999-2002 constitutional reform in Indonesia: remaking the Negara Hukum. A socio-legal study'. The doctoral research was supervised by Jan Michiel Otto and Adriaan Bedner.

On 25 October 2018, Tu Zhang defended her thesis 'Public Reason Secularism: A Defense of Liberal Democracy'. The doctoral research was supervised by prof. P. Cliteur.

In the wake of controversial disclosures of classified government information by WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden, questions about the democratic status of secret uses of political power are rarely far from the headlines. Despite an increase in initiatives aimed at enhancing government transparency – such…

This paper written by Alexandre Afonso, Assistant Professor and Researcher at Leiden University, argues that gender norms and the political strength of the left were important structuring factors regarding why European countries choose migrant labour to expand their labour force in the decades that…

Written by a select international group of leading privacy scholars, Social Dimensions of Privacy endorses and develops an innovative approach to privacy.

SEECR-CONGO aims to strengthen the doctoral education ecosystem in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to foster a new generation of highly skilled researchers who can contribute to academia and the wider labour market.

Last week, the 12th Annual Conference of the European Society of International Law (ESIL) took place on the topic of How International Law Works in Times of Crisis. The conference was hosted by the Riga Graduate School of Law in cooperation with the Latvian Constitutional Court. The conference intended…

Knowledge that helps protect the Netherlands and Europe from military and cyber threats.

The conflict between the Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán and his party Fidesz, on the one hand, the other parties within the European People's Party (EPP), on the other, illustrates the complex functioning of European democracy. Michiel Luining, lecturer at the Institute of Public Administration at Leiden…

Sarah Giest and Annemarie Samuels, both Assistant Professors at Leiden University, researched the quality and coverage of the data being collected for policiymakers to be used, specifically pertaining to minority groups.

This article, by Sara Perlstein, explores how perceived social acceptability shapes whether people talk about risks, showing that risk perceptions and conversations are socially negotiated rather than purely individual.

Rianne Scheerhoorn is a government trainee at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. After completing her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Public Administration, she was sure that the Central Government Traineeship Programme (Rijkstraineesprogramma)…

From closed government systems in the Middle East to an exceptionally open Dutch government. Public administration lecturer Alex Ingrams is an expert on transparency: ‘Why are some countries secretive? And what role does technology play?’

As both old and new democracies experience increasing democratic backsliding, there is a critical societal need to rethink the design and effectiveness of democratic checks and balances. In this conference on Friday 9 June, the aim is to explore multidisciplinary insights about what makes the checks…

To what extent can global issues be solved by multistakeholder collaboration, a relatively new type of organisation? Jan Aart Scholte, the coordinator of the Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) interdisciplinary research programme, has received a Dutch Research Council (NWO) grant…

Leiden University College and the Erasmus Center of Law and Digitalization, with the support of the Sectorplan SSH-Breed on Digitalization and the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research, are announcing a Call for Abstracts for a two-day workshop, Digital and AI Governance at a Time of Geopolitical…

Erik de Maaker and Radhika Gupta received a Seed Grant to initiate research on how heritage has been and can be mobilised to address climate change governance in Himalayan Asia. This project will address a significant knowledge gap on the potentials and pitfalls of climate governance, with an initial…

Honorata Mazepus, Assisstant Professor at Leiden University, researched the topic of Madisonian Judgments in Five Cultures, together with three other authors.

With the childcare benefits scandal in the Netherlands, certain interests in society were hidden for long to politics and governance. With the farmers’ protests, on the other hand, the major economic and political interests at stake were hidden for long to society. In her inaugural lecture on 16 September,…

The Summer School ‘The European Union, the United Nations and Global Governance’ is open to Master-level and PhD students. It is supported by the European Union’s Jean Monnet program.

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…

Last November, it was announced that the European Commission has awarded a Jean Monnet Chair to Professor of Tax Law Irma Mosquera Valderrama. She will use the grant to shape the EUTAXGOV project over the next three years.

The Municipality of The Hague called on researchers to come up with a proposal for an innovative research project on problems big cities face such as energy transition. Four of the five projects that have been granted funding come from researchers from Leiden University.

On 15 and 16 May, Vestert Borger participated in the conference ‘Governing through funding in the EU’. The conference was organised by Lilian Tsourdi and Marijn van der Sluis, who are both affiliated with Maastricht University.

Leiden University health psychologist Andrea Evers will join the Scientific Council for Government (WRR) on 1 January 2024. Last Friday, the council of ministers approved Evers' nomination for appointment by the king as a council member. The WRR informs and advises the government and parliament on major…

Saniye Çelik, senior programme manager at the Centre Professional Learning (CPL) at Leiden University: The diversity policy of the Dutch central government still needs work. How do we take a real step forward? Saniye Çelik, Christiaan Rebergen, Marc Allessie and Jacqueline Prins exchange ideas.

A new discussion paper published in Policy Sciences by two Leiden researchers claims that governments are working with one hand tied when it comes to data on vulnerable groups. At the core of this paper is the idea that even though the volume of data has increased in recent years, the quality of the…

The Summer School will take place from 14-25 June 2021 and welcomes Master-level and PhD-level students who are interested in learning more about the interactions between the EU and the UN and the EU’s role within current patterns in global governance.

The Institute for Philosophy at Leiden University is host to the NWO programme,

International Relations and European Politics is one of the three organisational clusters of the Institute of Political Science.

You’re about to start your minor at Leiden University. Make sure you are well prepared and get your studies off to a good start.

Mayke Kaag has been appointed Professor of the Anthropology of Politics and Governance in Africa at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (CADS) on behalf of the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL).

In 2007, a spy from the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) planted a destructive computer virus at an Iranian nuclear site, halting the Iranian nuclear weapons programme. Dutch newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’ has revealed that the AIVD kept the crucial role of the Dutch spy a secret from…

The new cabinet has finally taken office. Six of its members studied in Leiden, once again making the University a key supplier to the cabinet. Who are these alumni?