In the opinion article ‘Maak praten over de dood niet tot een morele plicht’ (Don’t turn talking about death into a moral obligation) Annemarie Samuels and Liesbeth van Vliet, argue together with Marike de Meij and Sander de Hosson that it is important to have conversations about death and dying but…

The student elections for the student representatives of the Faculty Council will take place from 22 to 25 April. Prominent members of four student parties engaged in a debate last Thursday on topics close to students’ hearts.

The common image of extreme right activist is people wearing bomber jackets, flags and banners while shouting defiance during protest marches. Or that of the extremist internet trolls spreading racist ideologies while sitting home alone behind their computer screens. However, the line between extreme…

The American security services brought down American President Nixon, not the media as people generally believe. Andrew Gawthorpe, researcher on diplomacy and American foreign policy, hopes that the security services under Trump also make the right decision.

The procedures for admitting minor asylum seekers from Camp Moria on Lesbos to the Netherlands are in breach of children’s rights according to Ton Liefaard, Professor of Children’s Rights and Peter Rodrigues, Professor of Immigration Law.

Jan Melissen in Trouw over wereldleiders die elkaar steeds meer schofferen

Online content can be harmful to democracy and the self-regulation approach is no longer adequate, claims Professor Tineke Cleiren in an opinion piece in Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant.

Three professors, including Leiden Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law Wim Voermans, sent an urgent letter to the Dutch Senate on 29 May 2023 concerning the new pension system. The criticism focuses not so much on the content of the new pension system, but on the fact that, according…

Hoe ver mogen demonstranten gaan? En moet de politie ingrijpen als iemand zich vastketent? Jeroen ten Voorde, hoogleraar straf- en procesrecht, sprak met Omroep Gelderland over het demonstratierecht: ‘Ik zou niet meteen zeggen dat het strafbaar is.’

Very little is known about the relationship between religion and the digital future. Bart Barendregt, Professor by special appointment Anthropology of Digital Diversity, is about to change that. He receives a Vici grant of 1.5 million euros from the NWO for his research project 'One between the Zeros,…

In every parliamentary system, people vote on political parties during an election instead of a president. It is very unlikely that one party gets the majority of the parliament. Therefore, a government is formed by negotiations between parties. In Belgium, this process is far more complicated than…

‘Vrijwel elke kritische reflectie op AI en de richting waarin AI zich op dit moment ontwikkelt, ontbreekt’, zegt Reijer Passchier, hoogleraar digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat aan de OU en universitair docent staatsrecht in Leiden, in een opiniestuk in de Volkskrant.

The legal protection of parents and children in cases involving placement in care must improve. That is the opinion of Mariëlle Bruning, Professor of Children and the Law.

By the time you read this message, it will already be February. But since this is our first newsletter of the year, I still feel compelled to wish all of you a very happy New Year!

In an essay in Dutch magazine 'Vrij Nederland' Nikki Sterkenburg, external PhD candidate at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, discusses how radical and extreme right voices have become mainstream over the last twenty years. Sterkenburg brings up several reasons why the prevailing stigma…

On 19 October 2023, Vincent Delhomme spoke at the conference on ‘European Judicial Narratives’, hosted by the University of Louvain Saint-Louis in Brussels. Vincent participated in the panel devoted to the reception of these judicial narratives in the European legal epistemic community.

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.

For the second time in six months, Hans-Martien ten Napel has been invited to write the opening essay for a series of international blog posts.

Twee jaar geleden klaagde promovendus Danny Mekić het socialmediaplatform X aan, omdat zijn account, zonder toelichting, onvindbaar werd gemaakt. Hij kreeg gelijk van de rechter, maar X verzet zich ertegen: ‘Twitter wil niet transparant zijn.’

The first fine for space debris has been issued. An American company that had failed to clean up its space junk has been fined $150.000.

Last week, a large number of farmers came to The Hague to ask attention for the problems they are faced with. They certainly received a lot of attention but does this mean their problems are actually being addressed?

Na de 7 oktober demonstraties schoffeerde Wilders burgemeester Halsema, door op X te roepen dat zij het land moet verlaten. Volgens experts overtreedt Wilders hiermee de gemaakte afspraken met de coalitiepartijen. Wim Voermans, hoogleraar Staatsrecht, hierover aan het woord in het Parool.

Aoife Fleming attended the climate summit in Glasgow as UN Youth Delegate for the Netherlands. She recently graduated with a master’s degree in Financial Law.

An unclear role, competition with IT and a wide range of subjects. Despite the widespread media attention for IT-security & privacy, the tasks of the Chief Information & Security Officer (CISO) remain indistinct. Bibi van den Berg, professor of Cybersecurity Governance, took part in the panel discussion…

How feasible is the new migration deal and is it really the breakthrough politicians like Mark Rutte claim it to be? Dutch television programme Nieuwsuur asked various experts, including Mark Klaassen, for an answer to that question.

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.

The Leiden bachelor’s programmes in Linguistics, Religious Studies and Ancient Near Eastern Studies have received the accolade of ‘top study programme’ in the Keuzegids (Study Guide) 2019 for Universities.

The Keuzegids Universiteiten 2018 has labelled the master’s programme in Computer Science as a “Topopleiding”, because it fulfils the highest standards. The Leiden programme ranks highest on the list of Computer Science programmes in the Netherlands.

On 27 November 2019, David de Boer defended his PhD dissertation 'Religious Persecution and Transnational Compassion in the Dutch Vernacular Press 1655-1745'. For his research, he analysed several hundred pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals published primarily in the seventeenth-century Netherlands,…

On Sunday 31 January 2016, Prof. Carsten Stahn spoke at the IBA Annual Conference on International Criminal Law.

In October, the Provincial Executive in Friesland reprimanded four civil servants who had signed an incendiary letter asking the government to adopt a more active climate policy. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, feels that the Executive made a mistake.

A consortium including economists, psychologists and public administration scholars from Leiden University will study public acceptance of the hydrogen transition in the Netherlands. They will look at the labour market impact, public perceptions of hydrogen and businesses’ willingness to invest.

Within the next five years, Leiden University wants its campus in The Hague to become a leading international academic centre with research and teaching that correspond with the city’s profile. All of the faculties will help achieve this, and the University has also signed a partnership agreement with…

Level Up is a non-profit project led by a multi-disciplinary team of doctoral researchers in the framework of the Europaeum Network was founded by the University of Oxford University. Sophie Veriter explains the importance of Level Up, the development of the ‘Level Up Toolkit’, and why this project…

Two new Assistant Professors are joining Science Based Business (SBB) this Autumn. ‘Xishu Li and Jian Wang are the first two Assistant Professors we recruited. This is an exciting, crucial next step for SBB,’ said Professor Simcha Jong who joined Leiden University as the Director and first Professor…

As a result of production pressure, judicial powers focus more on efficiency and less on making sure they get to the truth. Professor of Criminology Jan de Keijser believes that establishing the truth in court cases is under threat. Inaugural lecture 7 November.

A smart city is of no use if its residents don’t trust it. Tanaquil Arduin, Chief Data Officer at the Municipality of The Hague, and Bram Klievink, Professor of Digitalisation and Public Policy at Leiden University, explain how this can be avoided – to some extent. ‘Make sure civil servants and residents…

Is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adequate in ensuring responsible innovation using data analytics? What is the role of ethics with regard to placing limits on technological developments? Does innovation drive business and industry transformations, or does shareholder value maximization…

Call for Papers: Imperial Artefacts. History, Law, and the Looting of Cultural Property

Research on 45 years of legal and economic data for 132 countries by international team shows the addition of one right for LGB people is associated with over $2000 in GDP per capita

Presenting a well-thought-out idea to Schiphol experts, a former ambassador or a security expert. For the third-year Security Studies bachelor students, this was a unique experience and a great opportunity last week. 'Who knows, maybe they can work for us in the future!'

Tijdens het symposium ‘Transdisciplinary Study of Just Public Algorithmic Systems’, op vrijdag 24 maart in Den Haag, staat onderzoek naar het gebruik van algoritmische systemen in de publieke sector centraal. Een actueel onderwerp dat de laatste tijd veel in de belangstelling staat. Vijf vragen over…

Over the past year, many of our staff and students have won prizes, been awarded a substantial grant or been appointed to an academic association or a position in public life. All of these are good reasons to include them in our 2018 Hall of Fame. We are proud of them all.

As a result of globalisation, migration and technological advances, politicians have to make complex choices about social security and labour market policy. Professor by special appointment Olaf van Vliet will speak about this topic in his inaugural lecture on 7 June.

A delegation from Leiden University is currently visiting Mexico to initiate collaboration with universities and science funding bodies in the country and to extend and expand existing partnerships. Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker is confident enough already to call it a success.

PhD defence

On 19 September 2024, Dr Letizia Lo Giacco gave a lecture on

Four men have been sentenced to 25 years in jail for murdering a female relative. Jeroen ten Voorde, Professor of Criminal and Criminal Procedural Law, spoke to ‘Trouw’ newspaper about the court ruling: ‘They're all considered perpetrators under criminal law.’