How is the EU transforming from a soft power to a geopolitical actor, and what does this mean for the EU’s partners and global security? On Friday 13 December, a roundtable discussion offers students insights into these evolving dynamics, bridging theory and practice.

It is becoming increasingly common to collect data from children and young people through digital means. The impact of this so-called ‘dataveillance’ on children, who are monitored from birth via smartphones and Fitbits, is great.

Carlotta Rigotti, postdoctoral researcher at eLaw – Center for Law and Digital Technologies, and Professor Clare McGlynn of Durham University have co-authored a new article in the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, titled 'Online and technology-facilitated violence against women: The EDVAW platform's…

Conference

Jorrit Rijpma was invited to teach at a number of summer schools this year. He lectured at the CLEER summer school on External Relations, the ICPMD summer school on migration and asylum and the Odysseus summer school.

In a recent interview with Maya Plentz for The Unbrief, Dr Gianclaudio Malgieri, Associate Professor of Law & Technology at eLaw, Leiden University, explored the intersection of AI-powered search technologies and privacy rights.

In this commentary, Sabine Witting, Assistant Professor at eLaw, provides a comprehensive analysis of the Second Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

As a member of the international advisory board, Prof. Dr. Ton Liefaard, participated in the final expert meeting of the United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, in Venice from 11-13 March 2019.

Oxford University Press has published the edited volume based on the European Law Institute's (ELI) project 'Rescue of Business in Insolvency Law'. The project ran from 2013 to 2017 under the auspices of the ELI and was conducted by Bob Wessels and Stephan Madaus, who were assisted by Gert-Jan Boon.

Are you worried about your smartphone addiction? Trust us, it could have been far worse… A shocking discovery, by an interdisciplinary team of specialists from Leiden University, revealed that Neolithic people were heavily addicted to stone axes. The axes were produced under horrific circumstances in…

The Leiden Centre for East African Law (LEAC) has been awarded a grant of €25.000 by the EU delegation to the East African Community (EAC) and the Secretariat of the EAC.

The design for the METIS instrument for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is final. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has given the green light for production of all parts of the instrument. It is the first ELT instrument, designed and to be built under Dutch leadership, to formally pass the…

The lecture series

On 28 and 29 August, Dr. Ben Van Rompuy and Dr. Armin Cuyvers gave a two-day training to the Competition Commissioners of the newly established East-African Competition authority.

Last week, Dr. Larik’s article entitled

On 10 January, Ben Van Rompuy spoke at the New Year's meeting of the Dutch Competition Law Association in Amsterdam.

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) was launched in Leiden 20 years ago. LERU is a partnership of 23 leading research universities, including the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Leiden, Leuven and Heidelberg. It celebrated this anniversary last week with a multi-day conference in…

Study information

The Council of Europe is currently implementing its Strategy for the Rights of the Child (2016-2021), one of the priority areas of which is “a life free from violence for all children”.

Archaeologist Frans Theuws, Buddhism specialist Jonathan Silk and mathematician Ronald Cramer have each been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant of 2.5 million euros.

The United States and the European Union need to work together more closely in the field of the law to fight terrorists and criminals who are operating increasingly internationally. This was the advice given by American Minister of Justice Loretta Lynch during her visit to Leiden University on 1 Jun…

To what extent does exoplanet Proxima b resemble our Earth? And is there some form of life present? Astronomers hope to find answers to these questions with the new European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). An NWO research grant of €18 million will allow a Dutch consortium to continue building instruments…

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, visited Leiden Law School on 8 December within the scope of International Human Rights Day.

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…

How many children are waiting for help from youth services in the Netherlands at any given time? And exactly how long do they have to wait?

Het kabinet is voornemens om het strengste asielbeleid ooit te gaan voeren. In het NRC geven Peter Rodrigues (emeritus hoogleraar immigratierecht) en Mark Klaassen (universitair docent immigratierecht) commentaar op dit voornemen.

The newly created European Law Unbound Society (ELU-S) held its inaugural conference on 25-26 September 2025, at the Charles University in Prague. Vincent Delhomme presented a paper and chaired a panel, both dealing with contemporary challenges in EU internal market law.

On 7 and 8 July 2016 the T.M.C. Asser Instituut and the Law Faculty of Leiden University organise a two-day symposium on EPPO.

PhD defence

On 8 March, International Women’s Day, equal opportunities for women worldwide, empowerment, and gender equality take centre stage. This day has been celebrated in the Netherlands since 1912, usually centring around a specific theme. This year’s theme: solidarity, the power for change.

A far-reaching understanding of human behaviour is necessary to get to grips with conflicts in society and to encourage parties to meet each other halfway. Psychologists, anthropologists and political scientists from Leiden are making invaluable contributions to that understanding. You can find out…

Lecture

A controversial video in which PowNed asks Taylor Swift fans how far they would go for a meet-and-greet with the singer violates portrait rights according to Jeroen ten Voorde in Dutch newspaper ‘NRC’.

The image of the European Union (EU) as a remote law-making machine is widespread. Quite often journalists and politicians deliberately depict ‘Brussels’ as bureaucratic, even undemocratic, bypassing its citizens. And many of us buy into that image. Nikoleta Yordanova, Anastasia Ershova and Aleksandra…

De Leidse student Noah Madretsma heeft de finale gehaald van de verkiezing voor VN-jongerenvertegenwoordiger Mensenrechten en Veiligheid. Wie is hij en waarom wil hij VN-jongerenvertegenwoordiger worden? Tijd om eens kennis te maken.

International Women's Day 2025 - Seminar

The Dutch Ministry of Finance says that new rules have significantly reduced tax avoidance via 'transit country' the Netherlands. Jan Vleggeert, Professor of Tax Law, has voiced his reservations about this claim in the media.

On 29 and 30 June 2018, a book workshop on the subject of general principles was held in Leicester, UK.

Language can be a time machine: we can learn from ancient texts how our ancestors interacted with the world around them. But can language also teach us something about people whose language has been lost? PhD candidate Anthony Jakob investigated whether the languages of prehistoric populations left…

On 25 January 2018 Yannick van den Brink defended his doctoral thesis titled ‘Voorlopige hechtenis in het Nederlands jeugdstrafrecht’ (‘Pre-trial detention in the Dutch juvenile justice system’). The doctoral research is supervised by Professor Ton Liefaard and Professor Mariëlle Bruning.

On 19 June, Jorrit Rijpma spoke at the international conference on the Constitutional Foundations of EU Migration law at Konstanz University.

The Hague / Amsterdam, 1 to 5 August 2016. The summer school Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in International Law: Progress, Consolidation, Stagnation will focus on the emergence of SOGI issues in human rights law, international criminal law, and refugee law.

That Tessa Schiethart finished her bachelor's degree in International Studies with a thesis on Indonesian women's reasons for veiling was a coincidence. Or so she thought. Six years later, her book Seeing and Being Seen, in which she writes about her life with a wine stain and vision loss, is in the…

eLaw – Center for Law and Digital Technologies offers educational programs at Pre-University, Bachelor, Master’s, Advanced Master’s, and postgraduate level in the field of law, technology, and society.

On 30 April, Prime Minister Mark Rutte was presented with the manifesto of the NWO Youth Challenge, which contains advice for policymakers, scientists and administrators on the empowerment of youth in the time of coronavirus. The manifesto is based on research questions submitted to the science community…

On November 16th 2018 Jorrit Rijpma visited the European Parliament and the European Commission with students of the LDE Master on the Governance of Migration and Diversity.

Angry politicians, angry journalists: the initiative of Forum for Democracy politician Gideon van Meijeren during which he secretly filmed a reporter portraying them as a ‘sewer rat’, caused a lot of anger. Where does all this commotion come from? Wouter Hins: ‘Calling a journalist a

On the 5th of May 2016, the second annual conference of the Leiden Center for East African Law (LEAC) took place at the East African Community headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. The Conference was organized on the occasion of Europe Day with the generous support of the EAC, the EU delegation to EAC and…

On the 27th April 2017, the third annual conference of the Leiden Center for East African Law (LEAC) took place at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya. The theme of the conference was ‘East African Law: A Common Market, Opportunities and Challenges for the Business Community’.