Prison staff are working under high pressure. The current proposal for cell sharing is the final straw. Associate Professor Esther van Ginneken appeared on Dutch news programme ‘Nieuwsuur’: ‘Serious incidents have occurred, including the murder of a cellmate.’

George Floyd's death still leads to fierce protests against police violence and racism on a daily basis in the United States and abroad. We asked Paul Wouters how he experiences these developments and what this will mean for our faculty.

The annual homicide rate has decreased considerably since the 1990s. In their hunt for an explanation, researchers Pauline Aarten and Marieke Liem made a surprising discovery: if you divide homicides into categories, you find significant differences in the homicide rate. Publication in the European…

On 25 November, the global 16-day campaign 'Orange the World' against violence against women and girls started. Leiden University will also be paying attention to this campaign. On Friday 9 December, Renate van der Zee and Marieke Liem will give a lecture at the Campus The Hague (Spanish Steps, Wijnhaven)…

This 48-month project is to contribute to a solid, accessible, domestically owned knowledge base for people-centred interventions aimed at strengthening access to justice in Libya (A2JiL), and to disseminate such knowledge among stakeholders, enhancing awareness and the capabilities required to provide…

Every semester, LUCIS invites a scholar to Leiden to provide a lecture series on a topic of their choice. With these lectures, we aim to present state-of-the-art research in Islamic studies to the Leiden academic community and beyond, and to offer students and junior researchers the opportunity to get…

International organisations that represent collaborations between States are becoming increasingly more powerful, and they have an increasing impact on our daily lives. For example, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg established that minors have a right to legal aid immediately following…

Could policies aimed at preventing radicalisation undermine the very trust and social cohesion they aim to strengthen?

On Tuesday 24 September the Marengo trial, also known as the trail against the so-called Mocro Maffia, continued behind closed doors after the fatal shooting of barrister Derk Wiersum. The main suspect is Ridouan Taghi. He is believed to be residing abroad along with several accomplices.

The Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) and the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) want to use private DNA databases in an effort to solve deadlocked murder cases. Bart Custers, Professor of Law & Data Science at eLaw, Center for Law and Digital Technologies, expects that this is permissible from…

Conspiracy theories are of all times, and the government should never dismiss them as a fantasy of fools. Certainly not now, when it turned out that authorities made a conspiracy themselves with a journalist threatened with murder. Which proves that the truth is always more insane than you could have…

The Lucia de Berk case or the suicide of Slobodan Praljak at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia: certain trials keep popping up in media. In her dissertation, Tessa de Zeeuw examines the cultural appeal of such cases and analyses artistic responses. ‘Artworks sometimes have…

It is good for a judge to have some empathy with victims and offenders. But too much empathy can be harmful to the practice of the law, as PhD candidate Claudia Bouteligier has found. Literature may offer a solution. PhD defence 18 September.

Two Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) have been placed in front of the University Library in memory of the Jewish Cosman family. At the time of the Second World War, they lived in one of the houses where the library is now located.

On 1 March 2023, the Dutch Safety Board (Onderzoeksraad Voor De Veiligheid, OVV) published its report on the protection provided by the Dutch security services and lessons learned from three cases. The OVV was highly critical of the use of key witnesses and the protection offered to them. Jan Crijns,…

The ‘University of the Netherlands’ is a series of lectures in which academics address topics based on their expertise. In the latest instalment, cultural historian Simon Willmetts discusses how intelligence services operate and what has changed since 9/11.

Myanmar must take immediate measures to protect the Rohingyas. This has been decided by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Over the past 20 years, levels of common crime throughout the world dropped, except in countries that are plagued by poverty, have large families and have been afflicted by civil wars. This was established in a study that compared safety in 166 countries.

The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which is carrying out the investigation into the MH17 disaster has identified four suspects who have been brought in connection with bringing down the aircraft. The four are to be prosecuted and as a result have been placed on international wanted lists.

The article of The Economist discusses the problems of Great Britain “exporting” extremists to foreign countries and the serious worries about British extremist who hold a foreign origin. In particularly, citizens whose roots lie in Bangladesh. Last February, Shamima Begum was stripped of her Britain…

The book “Becoming a European Homegrown Jihadist” of Dr. Bart Schuurman, Assistant Professor at Leiden University's Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA), is published by Amsterdam University Press on 22 March 2018.

The Public Prosecution Service in the Netherlands is examining the possibility to prosecute Dutch national Jitse Akse on the suspicion of the multiple murder of Islamic State fighters. As a foreign fighter Akse joined the Kurdish militia YPG in its armed struggle against the Islamic State.

Ontdek je eigen gedrag en dat van anderen tijdens onze unieke teambuildingervaring, waar wetenschap, emoties en spelletjes samenkomen!

How do insurance products transform intimate and personal relations? What are the consequences of the classifications that insurance companies use and how do these affect solidarity, morality and inequality?

Research projects which are assisted by the NVIC in the field of Arabic studies.

In May 2018, Malek F. stabbed three people in The Hague. According to Malek F., he was told by a ‘big bird’ in the sky to randomly stab people. His lawyers registered a plea of insanity with the court because of his mental condition. In the end, the court sentenced Malek F. to involuntary commitment…

The number of life sentences in the Netherlands is rising sharply. This is a clear response to the serious drugs violence and brutal attacks on our rule of law. However, criminal justice experts do not believe that this will deter future offenders from carrying out liquidations.

On 18 March 2019, Gökmen Tanis shot three people in a tram in Utrecht. He shot a fourth victim after exiting the tram on the 24 Oktoberplein. On 1 July, the criminal trial against Tanis started with presumably only one possible outcome: a life sentence.

The British police discovered 39 bodies in the back of a lorry earlier this month. The refrigeration unit in which the bodies were found had entered the United Kingdom via Belgium.

Underneath you will find the 12 most important Facebook events that took place at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs in the past year, and an overview of our Instagram highlights of 2018.

The man prosecutors say bankrolled the 1994 Rwandan genocide is too ill to stand trial, but the judges in his case said they want to continue with a different type of inquiry. Félicien Kabuga, 90, is suffering from severe dementia. Judges want to move ahead with alternative proceedings that would not…

At the 66th Ordinary Session of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government held in Abuja, Nigeria, on 15 December 2024, a landmark decision was made to establish the Special Tribunal for The Gambia.’ (Press release by the Ministry of Justice of The Gambia)

Grabovski spoke in various media on the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January 2022.

Door aangescherpte verlofregels kunnen gedetineerden niet met verlof, terwijl dat hun re-integratie bevordert.

How do perpetrators of notorious crimes integrate in society after their imprisonment? Marieke Liem and Daan Weggemans investigated this in in-depth interviews with ten Dutch convicts for murder, paedophilia and terrorism.

She stands out for the moderate tone she takes in discussions on Dutch talk shows. Without judgement you can have an open conversation, criminal lawyer Natacha Harlequin learned in her student days in Leiden. ‘What I personally think of the alleged act doesn’t matter so much.’

On 22 March, five days after his final attendance at the Lucia de B case, Professor of Statistics, Richard Gill, will be appointed Distinguished Lorentz Fellow 2010-2011. To mark the award, Gill is organising a breakfast symposium on the relations between the media, science and law.

The four thousand war victims buried at the Netherlands Field of Honour at Loenen include a number of Leiden students who were in the Resistance. The War Graves Foundation is looking for volunteers to take part in a special event to honour the deceased.

Theft, prostitution, fortune-telling or murder. Historian Manon van der Heijden and a group of students are researching court records from The Hague from 1600 to 1800. They are tracing crimes and offenders and shedding new light on The Hague’s Gevangenpoort (or Prison Gate). Among their many discoveries…

On 26 November historian Jan Grabowski and sociologist Barbara Engelking will both give the Cleveringa Lecture. They wrote a book about the Holocaust in Poland and were taken to court for defamation.

The Queens of the Nile exhibition at the National Museum of Antiquities finally affords the wives of the pharoahs the attention they deserve. Thanks to guest curator Olaf Kaper, students and PhD candidates gained valuable experience in museum curating.

How do you recount historic events if you are not allowed to talk about them? For his dissertation, Taufiq Hanafi tried to find out how a period of mass murder – despite heavy censorship – found a place in Indonesian literature. PhD defence 31 March.

How do harrowing war experiences affect different generations? Students have made a video about poignant family stories. They interviewed other students and writer Dubravka Ugrešić. The premiere of the film was on 4 May during the online Hour of Remembrance. Watch this online memorial.

Every month a member of the Institute for History tells about a book that inspired him or her. Afterwards, the pen is passed on to another colleague. This month dr. Robert Stein tells about the book 'La Vérité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert' by Swiss writer Joel Dicker. It is not so much the whodunit that…

Remembrance Day on 4 May may be different this year, but it will make no less of an impression. Ethan Mark, who specialises in modern Japanese history, will give an online lecture about forgotten stories from the Second World War. Via Open Jewish Homes, moving stories can be heard online of Jewish alumni.…

Drugs-related violence in Mexico is similar in terms of dynamics and strategy to the IS hybrid war in the West. This is the claim made by Teun Voeten. PhD defence 20 September.

The Pilgrims to America exhibition at Museum De Lakenhal inspires reflection. How far do you go in the quest for freedom? It focuses on the Pilgrims’ relationship with the University and which knowledge they took with them from Leiden.

Canadian Roméo Dallaire (1946) was UN Commander in Rwanda at the time of the genocide there, subsequently becoming a champion of human rights. He has worked as a researcher at several different universities, and was a senator in Canada for nine years. Dallaire will give this year's Cleveringa lecture…

Students were able to continue their studies in September 1945 after the University had been closed for several years during the Second World War. This moment was celebrated for four days, with the traditional cortège, commemorative services and a party in the Botanical Garden. Queen Wilhelmina was…

Spirits play a important role in post-colonial and minority literature as a means of processing black pages from history, according to literary scientist Chia-Sui Lee. PhD defence 11 January.