On Friday 10 February, the annual Odysseus conference on migration and asylum law was held at the European Commission.

The Netherlands is facing criticism after a tanker carrying sanctioned Venezuelan oil docked in Curaçao. Hilde Woker, assistant professor and an expert on the law of the sea, calls the incident 'contentious' in NRC newspaper and disputes the US interpretation of international law.

Jason Rudall, Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, has published a monograph entitled 'Responsibility for Environmental Damage'.

Olga Ceran was a speaker at the European Constitutional Law Review (EuConst) Symposium for Young Scholars that took place in Maastricht on 18 June 2024.

Op dinsdag 15 oktober 2024 nam Rogier Kegge, universitair docent Staats- en bestuursrecht, deel aan de zogenoemde technische briefing van de vaste commissie voor Infrastructuur en Waterstaat over het voorzorgsbeginsel.

De Europese Unie bekijkt mogelijkheden om geblokkeerde Russische tegoeden aan te wenden ter ondersteuning van Oekraïne. Joris Larik, universitair hoofddocent Europees en internationaal recht, duidt de zaak in een interview voor Al Jazeera.

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

Konstantinos Zoumpoulakis, Research Assistant at the Institute of Criminal Law & Criminology, has written a report on this conference

Restructuring of corporate groups was discussed at the joint conference of the European Law Institute (ELI) and the Business & Liability Research Network of Leiden University took place in Leiden (the Netherlands). During this conference, developments at both the national and European levels were discussed.…

In her capacity as a lawyer and expert in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, Professor Helen Duffy is filing a lawsuit against the Dutch State. Leiden University’s weekly newspaper Mare reports that through her role, Duffy is assisting a Palestinian Dutchman whose family was killed in…

In April 2018, Melanie Fink was elected as a member of the Coordinating Committee of the ESIL Interest Group ‘The EU as a Global Actor’. For the next four years, she will work in that function alongside Christine Kaddous (University of Geneva), Anne Thies (University of Reading), and Ramses Wessel (University…

A ‘new governance culture’ – a hot topic for a number of years now. What kind of culture of public administration do we have in the Netherlands and how do you change it? This question is the focus of the podcast Het Spel & De Macht (the Game & the Power). Each episode considers one theme related to…

Prof. Mark Leiser and a team of thirteen law students from Leiden University’s Advanced LLM programmes in European and International Human Rights Law as well as in Law and Digital Technologies together drafted a report for the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom…

Chemical weapons in the Syrian war, violation of human rights in North Korea and genocide in Myanmar: recent years many United Nations commissions of inquiry published shocking reports. Catherine Harwood studied those commissions and their roles and functions. On November 7 she will defend her PhD d…

Rogier Kegge, Assistant Professor in administrative law and environmental law, is a member of the Dutch Health Council’s Committee on Livestock Farming and Health. The Committee recently published a report on links between goat farms and pneumonia.

This semester, Ingrid Leijten is appointed as a guest professor at the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU).

On Thursday 28 January 2016, Prof. Carsten Stahn contributed to the OPCW Sub-Working Group on Non-State Actors, together with Professors Andrew Clapham (Geneva) and Dapo Akande (Oxford), in the presence of the Ahmet Üzümcü, Director-General of the OPCW.

On 19 November 2018, the American Bar Association (ABA), Section of Antitrust Law organized a teleconference “Sports and Antitrust: Breaking the Ice”.

‘Anne Frank inventor of the ballpoint pen’ was the laser message projected onto the Anne Frank House last Monday. It could be viewed on a video shared via Telegram channel ‘The Laser Nazi Bunker’. The suggestion behind the text was that Anne Frank did not write her diary herself.

Questions to a European and International Human Rights Law alumnus episode 1: Christina Azzarello.

Almost two weeks after the general elections in the Netherlands, negotiations between the leaders of the four parties who were expected to form a new coalition government are still not going smoothly. Ronald Plasterk, appointed as ‘scout’ to explore possible alliances, has said he will need one more…

On 21 January 2019 Barbora Budinska and Melanie Fink, researchers at the Europa Institute, spoke at the Workshop ‘Accountability and Control of European Multilevel Administration: Current Challenges in EU Administrative Law’.

Legal action relating to the situation in Gaza is now being taken in various countries and courts around the world. In a podcast for ‘NPO-Radio1’, Larissa van Herik, Professor of Public International Law, outlines what is gained from these cases and the relationship between law, activism and politic…

Essential services risk being taken over by US Big Tech companies, affecting privacy and digital sovereignty in the Netherlands. Reijer Passchier, Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law and Professor of Digitalisation and the Democratic Rule of Law at OU, co-authored an opinion piece in ‘de Volkskrant’…

Dat banken en de belastingdienst vanzelfsprekend voorrang hebben als schuldeiser bij faillissementen is achterhaald, concludeert Ruben van Uden, universitair docent en promovendus, in zijn proefschrift. Hij vertelt erover bij BNR: ‘Het is niet meer te rechtvaardigen.’

Momenteel vindt onder Trump in de VS, een snelle ontmanteling van verschillende instituties, die de democratische rechtstaat stutten, plaats. Wim Voermans, hoogleraar staatsrecht, acht de kans aanzienlijk kleiner dat dit in Nederland zal gebeuren door ons meerpartijenstelsel, het poldermodel en het…

Practice and science show that secure residential youth care in the Netherlands should no longer be used as a catch-all solution. This is the conclusion of several professionals including Professor of Child Law Mariëlle Bruning in Dutch newspaper NRC.

On 20 June 2025, Melanie Fink presented her research on ‘Robo Swarms and Polygraphs: The Future of European Border Management and its Human Costs’ at the Research Workshop on ‘Migration law at the intersection of international, EU and domestic law: institutional structures and the protection of human…

Andrew Shield (35) is a University Lecturer at Leiden University and the cofounder of the Leiden Queer History Network. History, migration and sexuality are all subjects he is passionate about and teaches in. He wrote a book about immigrants during the sexual revolution, as well as one on contemporary…

In her dissertation, political scientist Alessia Aspide explores how public attitudes toward fiscal policy are formed. Her key finding: fiscal preferences are not shaped in a vacuum, but are deeply embedded in institutional, political, and societal contexts.

The LLM programme is proud to announce that former student Alice Walker, graduate of the ‘20 class, received the Lord Denning Scholarship offered by Lincoln’s Inn for 2021-2022.

The Dutch police force has been deliberately storing personal data relating to millions of Dutch people for many years now. In doing so, the institution has been knowingly breaking the law. Bart Schermer, Professor of Law and Digital Technology expressed his concerns on Follow the Money – a platform…

On 31 August 2022, a delegation from the Korean Ministry of Government Legislation visited the International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) at Leiden University as part of their official visit to the Netherlands. The delegation’s visit was aimed at exchanging knowledge and experience on interaction…

The manner and context in which the government supports citizens' initiatives are often more important than the legal framework. In practice, it only creates unnecessary division and there are no solid grounds for it. Esmée Driessen, PhD candidate at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative…

The European Parliament’s newly created Subcommittee on Tax Matters held a public hearing on the EU’s work on harmful tax practices on the 1st of December.

On 13 June, Professor Christa Tobler spoke about indirect discrimination at the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University in Lithuania.

On Friday 12 November 2021, the Net Zero Space initiative was launched at the Paris Peace Forum. The International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) of Leiden University is one of the first supporters to the initiative.

Leiden University has written an advisory report at the request of the Ministry of Justice and Security on a legislative bill to improve legal protection in youth protection. The report acknowledges the improvements that the proposed legislation would bring, but also provides criticism.

On Monday 10 December, the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights dr. Adam Bodnar delivered the eighth Raymond and Beverly Sackler Distinguished Lecture on Human Rights at Leiden Law School. The event marked the annual celebration of International Human Rights Day, which was proclaimed to commemorate…

Consensus among Member States on the return of failed asylum seekers is currently lacking. For that reason, the Head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, wants new legislation that provides for a uniform policy. Armin Cuyvers, Professor of European Law, commented on the issue on Dutch radio…

Dr Letizia Lo Giacco is the recipient of the 2024 Rosalyn Higgins Prize for her article titled 'When a Dispute Exists: The Emerging Evidentiary Practice of the ICJ in Common Interests Proceedings'.

Few problems occupy the minds of European policy and lawmakers as much as the impending Brexit. With developments moving fast and insecurity rising, national parliaments are taking on an increasingly assertive role. The Europa Institute therefore organised a Leiden Law Exchange on Brexit, parliaments…

On 22 January, 15 inspirational lecturers – including Annemarie Drahmann and Joris Larik from the Institute of Public Law – received the Senior Teaching Qualification (SKO) from rector magnificus Hester Bijl. This qualification is awarded to lecturers who demonstrate strong teaching and didactic skills…

Politicians in The Hague were in for an unpleasant surprise when the interview with CDA politician, and also current Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister, Wopke Hoekstra was published. Especially Hoekstra’s suggestion to let go of the Government’s target to reduce the amount of nitrogen by 2030 raised some…

De rechtbank van Rotterdam geeft zorghulp Carol Kollmann gelijk in haar rechtszaak tegen het UWV. De zorghulpverlener vond dat ze recht heeft op een WW-uitkering en het meetellen van haar arbeidsverleden voor de WW, nadat ze erachter kwam dat ze daar door de zogeheten Regeling dienstverlening aan huis…

On 11 April 2018, students of the Advanced Master’s in European and International Human Rights Law attended a lecture on the human rights situation in Mexico. The lecture was delivered by Dr. Víctor Avendaño Porras, who lectures and researches at Mexico’s CRESUR (Research Centre on Teaching Formation…

Mees Vergouwen heeft op 28 oktober de Mitchell B. Carroll prijs van de International Fiscal Association (IFA) ontvangen. De fiscalist won de prijs met zijn proefschrift over ‘botsende belastingregels’.

To what extent can Parliament limit freedom with the so-called 2G policy? Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law Ingrid Leijten of Leiden University discussed this topic on NOS Nieuws en Co.

There is much unrest among local stallholders in Utrecht. Owners who for decades had a permanent pitch for their stall are no longer guaranteed this due to new European regulations. So no more benefits for the current stallholders which is causing them great uncertainty and frustration.

Vrouwen moeten in het nieuwe pensioenstelsel nog beter oppassen voor een te laag pensioen. In een interview met Nationale Nederlanden geeft Suzanne Kali, docent/onderzoeker pensioenrecht, afdeling Sociaal Recht, uitleg over deze pensioenkloof.