In important cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) in Luxembourg, judgments are preceded by an Opinion of an advocate general. These Opinions are not binding on the Court, but are highly influential in practice.

Starting 1 September, three new Programme Directors will begin at FWN. Daan van der Es, Reinout van Weeren, and Amineh Ghorbani will each be responsible for a master's programme in our faculty.

The political situation in Venezuela is increasingly complicated. On Monday morning, February the fourth, several EU countries, including The Netherlands, recognised Guiadó as legitimate acting president. Dr. Jan Melissen, attached to the Clingendael Institute and the Institute of Security and Global…

By a ruling of the Dutch Council of State, local residents and organisations can after all take their case to court even if they made no objection during a consultation session. This extension of access to court is the outcome of a judgment by the European Court of Justice. The Court ruled that in this…

We talk to Justin, who was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder type 1 over 14 years ago. Justin is very candid and talks about his first manic episode at the age of 28, and how he learned to live a stable life. Justin is doing well, and he owes this in particular to his own perseverance. What do you experience…

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…

Do you like running or helping charity? Then join the Leiden Science Run on 29 September! Form a team together with, for example, your old study mates or old roommates for this relay race of 5 km at the Bio Science Park in Leiden and Oegstgeest.

On November 23, 2017, Professor Simone van der Hof chaired a panel on age verification in the digital world at the Safer Internet Forum 2017 in Brussels.

The benefits department of the Dutch Tax Administration has attempted to reach backroom agreements with the judiciary about the decision period in benefits cases. Lecturer in tax law Martijn Nouwen says this harms the legal protection of victims.

This study is important because it seeks to uncover whether clinicians' communication influences neurobiological and physiological outcomes for patients.

Thomas Bäck wins the 2015 IEEE CIS Evolutionary Computation Pioneer Award for his contributions in synthesizing evolutionary computation.

On 22 July, Danny Mekić, PhD candidate at eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technology and Eindhoven University of Technology, was named ‘Mr. of the Week’ following his recent wins in two lawsuits against social media company Twitter.

ELS lab member Helen Pluut concluded this year’s lecture series on Empirical Methods in Legal Research. Helen discussed diary studies as an example of multilevel research designs.

In the days following Christmas, Christa Tobler gave a series of interviews to Swiss newspapers and Swiss radio about the new Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the UK and about what it might mean for Switzerland-EU relations and the draft EU-Swiss institutional framework agreement.

Human failures or faults in systems are certainly just as harmful as a targeted attack by hackers. That is what Leiden professor in cybersecurity Bibi van den Berg says in the Haarlems Dagblad. She states the recent huge disruptions at Schiphol are interesting examples.

Barend Barentsen, Professor of Labour Law, recently spoke at a meeting of experts in Amsterdam on the future of the Dutch incapacity benefit system.

On 26 February 2021, Clara van Dam was invited by Dr Oana Stefan to give a guest lecture for students of King’s College London in the elective course on ‘Law and New Modes of Governance in the European Union’.

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…

Friday 22 September marked the launch of the “Investment Support Programme for the LDCs” at the United Nations in New York.

On 28 September 2022, ZonMW commissioned a consortium made up of the Erasmus University/Erasmus MC, Leiden University/LUMC, and research agency Pro Facto from Groningen to carry out the fourth evaluation of the Dutch Medical Research (Human Subjects) Act (WMO) and the Central Committee on Research Involving…

How can we diagnose the life-threatening condition sepsis in premature babies as quickly and accurately as possible? That is what PhD student Manchu Thangavelu from the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) wants to figure out.

When the immune system attacks cancer, the tumour modifies itself to escape the immune reaction. Researchers at LUMC published on this subject in Nature on 28 June.

Our society can no longer not imagine the threat of cybercrime. Banks, companies, and schools are hacked, or 'DDoSed', with increasing regularity and data is being stolen or taken hostage. To respond adequately to this threat, we need more knowledge of the perpetrators.

On Tuesday, November 18, 2025, Ambassador Bert Theuerman (Austrian Ambassador to The Netherlands) hosted a Coffeehouse Discussion exploring the position and impact of women in science and arts at his residence in The Hague.

Many employers are unaware that work-related accidents must be reported immediately to the Netherlands Labour Authority (NLA) and therefore they neglect to do so. Therefore, there is often no investigation into the cause of an accident. The NLA is aware of only half of the number of work-related accidents…

Stichting Migratierecht Nederland and the Europa Institute of Leiden University are jointly organising the conference ‘Children’s Rights and Migration’ that will take place in Leiden on 26 January 2023. Researchers, lawyers, judges, policy makers and other professionals from migration legal practice…

Episodes 40 and 42 of the podcast Everyday Runners by Andy Fuller and Reading Sideways Press, feature a conversation with Jasmijn Rana, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Sociology of Development.

On 10 March students of the advanced master's in International Children’s Rights and the Dutch Child Law master's watched the documentary Shadow Game with filmmaker Els van Driel.

Wim Willems and Hanneke Verbeek were awarded with the Die Haghe Prize of 2016 for their book ‘Hier woonden wij. Hoe een stad zijn Joodse verleden herontdekt’ (English: ‘This is where we lived. How a city re-discovers its Jewish past.’) It is an exciting book about the rise and fall of the Jewish community…

Emeritus Professor Rudi van Maanen has received the Cornelis Joppenszoon statuette. He was presented with the distinction by Deputy Mayor of Leiden, Julius Terpstra.

Kimia Heidary and Helen Pluut received the Best Paper Award at the Munich Summer Institute for their paper on consumer perceptions and personalized pricing.

In exactly 450 days’ time, on 8 February 2025, it is the university’s 450th anniversary. We are going to celebrate this with our students, staff, alumni and friends. In the run-up to the anniversary, we are compiling our top 450: Who or what is your favourite?

On 12 September 2018 Rijpma, Associate Professor of European Law at the Europa Institute, spoke at the Netherlands Institute in St. Petersburg in the framework of the Dutch Wednesday lecture series.

On 21 and 22 November, a conference on Green Regionalism was co-organized by CompaRe and the Centre for Commercial Law in Asia of the Singapore Management University (SMU) Yong Pung How School of Law.

On Tuesday November 25, 2025, Prof. dr. Sarah Cramsey traveled with students from her masters seminar on “New Approached to the Holocaust in Central and Eastern Europe” taught at the History Institute to Amsterdam for a unique opportunity. There, Ms. Lotte Sophie Groenendijk, an alum of the History…

On Tuesday, December 9 2025, Prof. Koen Ottenheyn delivered the last Austria Centre lunch talk of 2025. Prof. Ottenheyn serves as a professor of architectural history at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and is a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and the Academic Curatorium which advises…

Tensions between Venezuela and the USA have risen over the past few months. Associate Professor Salvador Santino Regilme explains on Al Jazeera what Donald Trump’s plans might involve.

An international team of scientists, including Xander Tielens of Leiden Observatory, has used space telescope Hubble and the ALMA observatory to show that UV radiation from massive stars can prevent planets from forming. The researchers publish their findings on 1 March in the journal Science.

The European Commission has started an investigation into possible illegal state aid from the Netherlands to Nike. It is high time that agreements between Tax Authorities and multinationals are made public, says Associate Professor in Tax Law Jan Vleggeert.

At the end of 2024, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency stated that it is “highly unlikely that the Netherlands will achieve its statutory climate target of a 55 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030”. This is partly due to setbacks in policy implementation and measures that have been…

On 22 June, Professor Haentjens held a lecture at the University of Milan. He was invited to speak on the topic of the applicable law to the assignment of claims.

University lecturer Lauren Lauret has been awarded the D.J. Veegens Prize 2022 for her dissertation on the meeting practices of the States General during the time of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces compared to those of the Lower House during the first half of the 19th century.

Researchers Esther Captain, Gert Oostindie and Valika Smeulders have won the Die Haghe Prize 2024. They were awarded the prize for their book The colonial and slavery past of Hofstad The Hague.

Professor of Contemporary History Wim van den Doel has won the 2024 Boerhaave Biography Prize. Van den Doel receives the prize for his book 'Snouck: Het volkomen geleerdenleven van Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje'.

Deskundigen pleiten voor automatisch uitkeren van toeslagen en af te zien van terugvordering van te veel betaalde toeslagen. Fatma Capkurt, universitair docent Staats- en bestuursrecht en lid van de Staatscommissie rechsstaat, zegt tegen de NOS dat ‘uit wetenschappelijk onderzoek blijkt dat de overheid…

On 11 November 2016, The Hague Law Labs and the department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, in collaboration with the Italian Association for European and Comparative Law, will organise ‘The Dutch Constitution Beyond 200: tradition and innovation in a multilevel legal order'.

On Friday 11 October, the workshop on “The Stigma of ‘Underdevelopment’ in Heritage Production” took place in the beautiful building of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at Delft University of Technology. The workshop was organized by Jasmijn Rana (CADS) and John Hanna (TU Delft)…

At the LDE Space & Society Honours, students explore everything the universe has to offer. From the technical frontiers to the rules that govern it: space law.

Free childcare: Professor Egbert Jongen sees the potential drawbacks. The allocated budget could be used more effectively, for one thing. He discusses this issue at length with Geert de Wit in Dutch financial newspaper ‘Het Financieele Dagblad’.

The latest volume of Contributions in New World Archaeology (Vol. 18) has been dedicated to the memory of Dr Andrzej Tadeusz Antczak, an eminent archaeologist and long standing collaborator of the journal. Dr Antczak, who passed away in 2024 after a long illness, was a respected member of Leiden University’s…