On October 20th, at 13:00-15:00 in Grotiuszaal (A051 KOG) the advanced International Children’s Rights program and the Leiden Institute of Immigration Law will co-organize a lecture by Ms. Margaret Tuite, the European Commission Coordinator for the Rights of the Child.

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…

Research from Dutch news organisation NOS shows that gambling companies, including Holland Casino and the Dutch Lottery, have more influence on the creation of new rules on gambling adverts than addiction experts.

The Faculty of Humanities is proud to launch its new D&I Calendar for the academic year 2024-2025. This calendar is an effort to build awareness and cultural understanding of important religious holidays and other special observances of the diverse groups within our academic community.

Our Winter School alumna Ginevra Montefusco defended her Master thesis this March with the title Food in the Margin: a feminist analysis of sense of place in Barriera di Milano, Turin (supervisors: Alessia Toldo and Egidio Dansero).

Members of Parliament will soon be discussing with various organisations what the Netherlands can do to stop pushbacks, a policy where migrants are forced back at the European borders.

A warm welcome to the students of the Master’s Programme in European Law 2019-2020. This year, we expect around 60 students who will start this LL.M. programme, organised by the Europa Institute. Our faculty staff is excited to meet you and to teach you all aspects of European Law.

As part of his guest professorship in Leiden, famous theoretical physicist Prof. Andrei Linde (Stanford University) gave a public lecture on June 23 at the prestigious Leidse Schouwburg in the historic city center. Linde is world-renowned for being one of the inventors of the theory of inflation, which…

Atte Ahola, who graduated last year from the bachelor’s programme in Urban Studies, has won the award for Best Undergraduate Thesis in Europe in the category of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Global Undergraduate Awards 2025.

Over 200 people paid their first visit to the new Middle Eastern Library on a special open evening. As well as exploring the library, they got to see exhibitions, speed lectures and premieres about Leiden University’s Middle Eastern collections.

Ad IJzerman, Emeritus Professor of Pharmacochemistry, was made a Knight of the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands on 26 April. He was presented with the royal honour by Mayor Elbert Roest in the town hall in Bloemendaal.

The United Nations fall short in their recently published guide to address hunger without surpassing the 1.5-degree climate threshold. This initial version is a significant step, according to a group of researchers including those of Leiden University. However, they miss an essential topic: reducing…

De zangstemmen van Nederlandse artiesten zijn te herkennen in muziek die door kunstmatige intelligentie (AI) is gemaakt. Hoogelaar intellectueel eigendomsrecht Dirk Visser sprak met NOS over het auteursrecht: ‘Je stem is een persoonsgegeven. Die mag je niet zomaar gebruiken.’

De IND wil - ondanks het bewind van Taliban in Afghanistan - meerdere Afghaanse vrouwen terugsturen. Verschillende experts van vijf Nederlandse universiteiten – waaronder Mark Klaassen, universitair docent immigratierecht - zeggen in Trouw unaniem dat het terugsturen van vrouwen onacceptabel is.

Neuropsychologist Mariska Kret is through to the next round in the 2016 Science Talent contest organised by New Scientist magazine.

From 18 to 20 May, the Telders International Law Moot Court Competition, organised by the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, welcomed 23 European teams to The Hague. The preliminary rounds took place at the Schouwburgstraat building of Leiden University, Campus The Hague. On Saturday 20…

On 6 September 2021 Dr Vestert Borger, Assistant Professor of European law, was awarded the Best Book Prize by the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES). Borger received the prize for his book 'The Currency of Solidarity: Constitutional Transformation during the Euro Crisi…

Elena Bondarouk, Assistant Professor at the Faculty Governance and Global Affairs, obtained her PhD on 27 August for her thesis on the local implementation of EU air quality policy. Her research has been included into the 'Europa decentraal' database, a Dutch governmental knowledge centre for queries…

The Faculty of Humanities is proud to launch its new D&I Calendar for the academic year 2023-2024. This calendar is an effort to build awareness and cultural understanding of important religious holidays and other special observances of the diverse groups within our academic community.

Government leaders have been searching for words to condemn the actions of Belarus which intercepted a passenger aircraft flying from Athens to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, having a fighter plane divert it to Minsk.

The 2nd edition of SCOLAS (Student Conference in Latin American Studies) will take place on June 19th, 2019.

From 26 to 30 June 2017 a summer course on Europeanisation of administrative law in the Member States of the European Union will be held by the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law.

On 6 November 2025, the Europe Hub welcomed Mr. Pierre Bachelier, Director of Student Affairs at the College of Europe, for a visit at Leiden University. Mr. Bachelier presented the College of Europe's postgraduates programs, which Leiden students can join after graduating from their masters.

The explanation from physicist Scott Waitukaitis for the screaming and bouncing gel balls in a hot pan has been covered in several media, including the Washington Post.

Recently, the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) issued its second preliminary reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Following its earlier reference on the European Central Bank’s bond buying programme Outright Monetary Transactions, the German court now…

‘Nederland is verworden tot een digitale kolonie en dit is ondermijnend voor onze democratie’ stelt Reijer Passchier, universitair docent staatsrecht en hoogleraar digitalisering en democratische rechtsstaat aan de OU, in een uitzending van NPO-radio1.

In the upcoming Dutch general elections, the focus of the party campaigns is on national issues. Luuk van Middelaar, Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union and its Institutions, argues in a column in Dutch newspaper NRC that foreign policy should also be on the agenda.

On 15 May 2024, master’s students and staff from the International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) visited Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, the Netherlands' main international airport and the world’s third busiest airport for international passenger traffic.

Following years of negotiations between Member States and the European Parliament, there’s finally been a breakthrough for migration policy. What does it mean for the Netherlands, exactly? Mark Klaassen, Assistant Professor in Immigration Law, discusses this on various media channels.

Anmol Dhawan (24) graduated cum laude from the Advanced LLM in Air and Space Law in Leiden on 28 August 2023. He comes from Mumbai in India and did his bachelor law studies at National Law University Delhi. He has been in the Netherlands since September 2022, so over one year now.

FIFA's new rules were introduced after the Diarra case in which a footballer wanted to unilaterally terminate his contract while it was still running. Stefaan Van den Bogaert, Professor of European Law, says in Dutch RTL news that he believes the new rules are ‘too restrictive’.

In 2009, the European Union adopted the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), mandating Member States to obtain 10% of all transport fuels from renewable sources by 2020.

LUCIS is happy to welcome Christian Müller to Leiden from mid-April to mid-May.

In light of her outstanding and inspiring achievements in the field of international dispute settlement, the Law & Practice of International Courts and Tribunals (LPICT) named a Prize in honour of H.E. Rosalyn Higgins in 2019.

The ‘Community Resilience Fund’, a programme of the Canadian federal government, approved a research grant for Dr. Bart Schuurman of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs.

On 5 February, Dr Kosta and Dr Ceran spoke at the high-level conference entitled ‘Perspectives on academic freedom in Europe and beyond’, organised in Brussels by the European Parliament’s Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA).

Ineke Sluiter, Professor of Greek Language and Literature, has been appointed Corresponding Fellow by the British Academy. Every year the Academy selects the best researchers from the humanities and social sciences in the UK as well as outside as Fellows.

At the Annual Meeting of the Tijdschrift Administratiefrechtelijke Beslissingen (AB) (Administrative Decisions Magazine) on Friday 21 January 2022, the winners of the annotation of 2021 were announced: Demy Jongkind and Annemarie Drahmann, from the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law,…

Media outlets Investico, de Groene Amsterdammer and Trouw reported on the wide-scale collection by the Dutch police of personal data of demonstrators and their family members. Bart Schermer, Professor of Privacy and Cybercrime, commented on the issue.

Ali Al Tuma, PhD candidate at the Leiden University Institute for History, has won the Sharjah Award for Arab Creativity for his play ‘Yusuf Melik Espanya’ (Yusuf King of Spain), that tells the story of a young Moroccan whose brothers conspire to send him off, against his will, to the Spanish Civil…

Have you ever wondered what your choices would be, facing a major crisis? Had your thoughts about the course of action taken bij authorities, media, law enforcement or the public in the wake of a terrorist attack?

Leiden University won three prizes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) Moot Court Competition – English edition. The final round was held on 27 June 2022 in Courtroom I of the ICC in The Hague (the Netherlands). Due to current COVID-19 related restrictions, it was a hybrid hearing with judges…

On September 1st, during the opening of the academic year, former IBL-student in Science-Based Business Wouter Bruins was awarded the prize for his publicity achievements for the university.

According to a recent court ruling, the reception of asylum applicants in the Netherlands is not in line with European requirements. The Dutch Government must take measures to amend the situation. What are the problems concerning the reception of asylum applicants and how realistic are the court’s d…

Municipalities are becoming more and more selective when it comes to the nationality, age and sex of the asylum seekers they are willing to take in. This is the outcome of an investigation by Dutch newspaper NRC. And the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) agrees with the results.…

Tradition has it that at the end of each academic year, the best master’s thesis in Political Science is awarded a prize. For 2021-2022, the jury is considering six nominations. All of great quality, but on different topics. These range from political party bans to questions regarding commitment within…

The shortage of reception places has become so great that the Dutch cabinet decided this week to take the lead in designating reception places itself. It is unusual that the Government is taking this measure. Up to now, the cabinet had left the management to municipalities. But the shortage of places…

In March, Dutch universities will take staggered strike action against the planned cuts. The strike will begin in Leiden on Monday 10 March. The university supports the strike action but is not going to close that day. Below we inform you how the strike will affect our university, students and staff…

Hoogleraar Law & Society Maartje van der Woude is door de Universitas Indonesia in Jakarta gevraagd om een lezing te geven ter gelegenheid van de 96e dies natalis van de Indonesische universiteit.

On Friday 11 March (16.00 hrs.) Minister Dijkgraaf (Education, Culture and Science) will give a speech at Leiden University entitled ‘When knowledge becomes critical’. In the speech, he will address several critical challenges in science and society. The livestream will be open to all.