The Social Domain Platform organized a regional meeting on homelessness on September 30 at the Pauluskerk in Rotterdam. At the invitation of Valente, the trade association for organizations that provide support to vulnerable people in our society, Martijn van den Brink was invited to speak about the…

After a year of hard work, the first class of students from the Master of Laws: Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights received their well-deserved master diplomas on Monday 29 August.

According to a study conducted by multiple research institutes, governments and law enforcements should widen the scope of their focus to right-winged terrorists such as Andres Breivik. The Guardian issued an in-depth analysis of their work last week.

To what extent does the Law Ombudsperson for Children achieve its goals as intended by the legislator when introducing the law?

On 3 March 2016 the book “The European Convention on Human Rights: A Commentary” by prof. dr. W. A. Schabas has been selected by The Executive Council of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) to receive the 2015 Certificate of Merit for High Technical Craftsmanship and Utility to Practicing…

The staff of the Master of Laws: Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights is extremely proud.

Political scientists Joop van Holsteyn and Tom Louwerse (Leiden University) find that the Dutch government is having a hard time coping with referendum outcomes in general, and ‘anti-European’ sentiments among voters in particular.

Mariana Gkliati participated on Saturday 2 June at ‘Europe on Trial'.

The number of young Western women travelling abroad to join the

Carola Schoor, programme manager for Public Affairs at the Centre for Professional Learning (CPL), reflects on Politico on the State of the European Union speech by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen from a political strategy and messaging perspective.

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…

Professor Paul van der Heijden (International Labour Law) has been awarded a grant of 50,000 euros by the city council of The Hague to start building a Business & Human Rights database.

On Thursday 22 September 2022, the posthumous PhD ceremony will be held of Thijmen Nuninga who passed away February this year. His doctoral thesis had already been approved at that time.

Leiden has been designated European City of Science 2022. The city's achievements as a city of science and innovation will be celebrated throughout the year, with as a highlight the international EuroScience Open Forum conference. The members of the core team that will organise this mega-event introduced…

To mark Human Rights Day on 11 December, H.E. Mykola Gnatovskyy, a judge at the European Court of Human Rights and former president of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, is giving a guest lecture. The annual guest lecture and Q&A…

In the largest study of ancient DNA ever conducted, an international team of scientists has revealed the complex story behind one of the defining periods in European prehistory. The study is published this week in the journal Nature.

‘Timmermans says more Polish workers are staying in Poland, but there aren’t any figures to back this up,’ was the headline of NU.nl news website during the European elections in 2019. This was after Nieuwscheckers, the fact-checkers at Leiden University, had checked a statement by PvdA politician Frans…

Leiden is proud to announce that the city has been selected to host the 33rd Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA), scheduled for 25-28 August 2027.

Finds uncovered in the east of Germany show that Neanderthals stored and preserved vast amounts of meat and/or temporarily aggregated in larger groups to exploit the spoils

The Netherlands holds the presidency of the European Union for the coming six months. There are too many urgent issues for the country to spend time on Dutch political hobby horses, says Stefaan Van den Bogaert, Director of the Europa Institute.

AI programmes such as Suno and Udio allow the user to compose songs that bear an uncanny resemblance to the style and vocals of famous artists. Can artists do anything about this?

On June 30, eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies of Leiden University organised the annual Hans Franken Lecture. This year the lecture was delivered by Jan Kleijssen, former Human Rights Director at the Council of Europe.

Salvador Santino Regilme received Honorable Mention for the 2022 Best Scholarly Article Award from the Sociology of Human Rights Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA). He won for his paper “Visions of Peace Amidst a Human Rights Crisis: War on Drugs in Colombia and the Philippines,”…

What makes people in the Netherlands join radical and far-right groups? PhD candidate Nikki Sterkenburg followed several activists. ‘Some feel it is their duty to defend the Dutch nation.’ PhD defence on 19 May.

On Tuesday 30 September 2025, PhD candidate Jonathan Collins will defend his dissertation A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of the Far-Right Alt-Tech Social Media Movement in Leiden’s Academy Building. His work examines the communication dynamics of far-right communities on alternative…

Italy recently struck a deal with Albania to accommodate thousands of boat migrants in two reception centres in Albania. Is this not contrary to asylum law? Mark Klaassen, Assistant Professor in immigration law comments in a Dutch RTL news article.

Sarah de Rijcke and Paul Wouters (CWTS) are partners in a new European consortium funded by the Swedisch Riksbankens Jubileumsfond: Knowledge in science and policy.

What does the retail crisis mean for the future of Europe's urban centres? Assistant professor Alistair Kefford answers this very question in the French television programme 27.

On the 27th of October the 7th conference - organised by the Centre for European Company Law (CECL) - will be held in Rome, Italy.

Between 18 and 29 March 2024, a group of 28 civil servants and policymakers from pre-accession countries participated in the Matra Rule of Law Training Programme on the Management of Borders. This event was organised and hosted by Leiden University at its campuses in Leiden and The Hague.

On 10 September 2020 the European Law Institute (ELI) launched the book Rescue of Business in Europe. The volume presents the results of a study led by Prof. Em. Bob Wessels (Leiden University, The Netherlands) and Prof. Stephan Madaus (Martin-Luther University, Germany), assisted by Gert-Jan Boon (Leiden…

Why do innocent people sometimes spend years in prison? EUREX is a registry of miscarriages of justice in Europe that ultimately led to exonerations. The aim is to prevent such mistakes being made in future. One of the initiators is Leiden legal psychologist Linda Geven.

Matthias Haentjens and Jouke Tegelaar held a presentation on the European dimension of judicial review of financial supervision at the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, AFM).

This dissertation attempts to describe the linguistic history of Hittite on the basis of a systematic etymological treatment of its entire inherited lexicon, precisely analyzing the phonological and morphological developments.

Islamic primary schools contribute to the integration of Muslims in Dutch society, concludes Marietje Beemsterboer in her PhD dissertation. The schools offer children a sense of belonging and prepare them for Dutch society.

For decades, linguists have racked their brains over the question of precisely how the syntax of various languages is different. PhD candidate Martin Kroon has developed a computer system that brings us closer to finding an answer. His PhD defence is on 10 November.

Pigeons, zebra finches and parakeets. Carel ten Cate studied bird sounds. But not just that. Together with linguists from Leiden, he investigated parallels between birdsong and language. On 9 June, his farewell symposium was held to mark the end of his broad career. Well, the end? Carel ten Cate has…

This year’s regional finals of the European Law Moot Court (ELMC) competition took place online. The 32 teams that qualified from the written rounds competed in two regional finals: the Schuman regional final on 17-20 March 2021 and the Adenauer regional final on 24-27 March 2021.

Senior Researcher at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs and Associate Fellow of The Hague Program of Cyber Norms François Delerue was awarded the 2021 Book Prize of the European Society of International Law for his book Cyber Operations and International Law published by Cambridge University…

For a long time, in the United States ‘Schmoozes’ have been organized. These small-scale meetings offer the opportunity to informally discuss important themes. On 12 and 13 October, the first European Schmooze took place in Milan. The topic was ‘Economic Inequality as a Global Constitutional Challenge’.…

On 4 April 2024, a meeting of the standing committee of the Dutch House of Representatives was held. At this meeting, Anna Marhold, Assistant Professor at the Grotius Centre and Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, informed the committee about the economic and legal implications of a military…

Neuroscientist Elseline Hoekzema receives a large European grant from the European Research Council (ERC). This ERC starting grant for promising young researchers allows her to investigate the effects of pregnancy on the brain in detail.

European integration opens up many opportunities for individual citizens, but can also create challenges for the welfare systems of European member states. We have all heard the Dutch government’s complaints about having to pay for the education of international students, Spanish government’s complaints…

In what ways do matters of cybersecurity affect the relationship between governments and citizens, have a bearing on (fundamental) rights and civil liberties, and alter the role and responsibilities of governments?

De Belgische premier Charles Michel wordt de nieuwe voorzitter van de Europese Raad, maar die functie had ook voor Mark Rutte kunnen zijn.