On 28 January 2022, the Department of Legal Studies (Central European University), the Europa Institute (Leiden University), and the ESIL Interest Group ‘The EU as a Global Actor’ hosted an Expert Panel Discussion on the topic 'AI in the EU and Access to Justice'.

Moritz Jesse and Daniel Carter, both members of the Europa Institute in Leiden, participated in the Conference ‘EU Citizenship and Federalism: The Role of Rights’ in November 2017.

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…

The Dutch cabinet wants to stop organisations from using zzp’ers (self-employed professionals) for work that is deemed to be embedded in the organisation. The only exception would be when a person explicitly meets certain criteria for entrepreneurs.

On Thursday 30 March, the Europa Institute held its second ‘Meet the Author’ event.

Female workers at Tesco Stores, a chain of supermarkets in the UK, brought a case to the European Court of Justice claiming they received unequal pay for doing work of equal value to that of their male colleagues.

The Netherlands must introduce a lower limit for tax on profits to prevent major multinationals not paying tax on a structural basis.

The government’s intention to be more transparent following the childcare benefits scandal is long overdue according to Annemarie Drahmann, Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law. One of the problems behind the benefits scandal was the lack of openness of the authorities. The government…

De coalitie houdt woensdag en donderdag topoverleg over de koopkrachtdaling van 6,8%. Het kabinet wil deze ongekende koopkrachtval compenseren, maar hoe kan dat effectief en enigszins betaalbaar?

Between 5 and 8 September, PhD Candidate Esteban Szmulewicz attended the 45th annual Conference of the European Group for Public Administration (EGPA), which was organised in close cooperation with The Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb and other key partners.

The European Commission has started an investigation into possible illegal state aid from the Netherlands to Nike. It is high time that agreements between Tax Authorities and multinationals are made public, says Associate Professor in Tax Law Jan Vleggeert.

Stephan Raaijmakers has been Professor of Communicative AI since 1 May. Prior to this, he had held this position for five years as professor by special appointment. How has his approach to AI changed in that time?

Het Hof van Justitie van de EU maakt duidelijk dat de doorlooptijd bij asielaanvragen in Nederland te traag verloopt. Mark Klaassen, universitair docent migratierecht, zegt in Dagblad Trouw dat personeelstekorten en/of achterstallig onderhoud bij de IND geen reden kunnen zijn voor het verlengen van…

Reijer Passchier, universitair staatsrecht en hoogleraar digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat aan de OU, waarschuwt in HP/De Tijd hoe weinig controle we werkelijk hebben over kunstmatige intelligentie, terwijl machtige bedrijven steeds meer invloed krijgen op onze democratische samenleving…

Research conducted by Dutch news programme ‘Nieuwsuur’ into the work carried out by Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands for victims of the childcare benefits scandal raises many questions. Legal experts are puzzled as to how the Cabinet at the time assigned the tasks. Geerten Boogaard, Professor…

The Dublin Regulation is under pressure. The Regulation should ensure that refugees are able to apply for asylum in the first country they enter. This pressure is nothing new, says Jorrit Rijpma, Professor of European Law, to Dutch newspaper the Volkskrant.

Now that the government has collapsed, the Netherlands will have to vote once more. The elections will not take place before November, says the Electoral Council. The Electoral Act sets deadlines for various steps to be taken before new elections can take place. The fact that the summer recess and autumn…

Dutch talkshow ‘Vier Avonden op Rij’ focused on the fall of the Schoof Cabinet, caused by PVV leader Geert Wilders withdrawing from the coalition. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, called the fall of the cabinet 'dramatic'.

A national survey conducted by Dutch newspapers Dagblad van het Noorden, Turbantia, Brabants Dagblad and the Dutch Federation of Trade Unions (FNV) shows that staff working in disability and mental health care often face violence in the workplace. In the three northern provinces of the Netherlands,…

Conference

On 22 April 2016, the Social Justice Expertise Center (SJEC) hosted the first global conference for international labour law judges and other adjudicators themed ‘Ensuring Coherence in Fundamental Labour Rights Case Law: Challenges and Opportunities’ at the Academy Building of the University of Leid…

On 12 June 2025, Advocate General Ćapeta delivered her Opinion in WS and Others v Frontex, a Grand Chamber case currently pending before the Court of Justice of the European Union. The case concerns a Syrian family that was returned to Turkey in what is arguably a violation of the principle of non-refoulement…

Amsterdam-based bicycle company VanMoof was declared bankrupt in court this week. The company had been struggling with financial problems for some time and recently closed its doors, causing great concern among customers. Several affected customers whose newly bought or repaired bikes were still being…

Lecture

What do a linguist, an artist, a Professor of Conservation and Restoration, and a lecturer at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science have in common? They all use Artificial Intelligence. On 7 April they discussed the use of AI at Leiden’s Kijkhuis cinema.

Circa twee miljoen Amerikaanse ambtenaren ontvingen onlangs een mail met een aanlokkelijke vertrekpremie, wanneer zij vrijwillig zouden opstappen. De vraag rijst echter of hier wel voldoende budget voor is. Barend Barentsen, hoogleraar Sociaal recht, noemt in Magazine Knack het ingaan op het aanbod…

Research from Dutch news organisation NOS shows that gambling companies, including Holland Casino and the Dutch Lottery, have more influence on the creation of new rules on gambling adverts than addiction experts.

Dutch activist Frank van der Linde has initiated summary proceedings against the extension of the emergency order following the recent disturbances in Amsterdam. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, comments on the case in Dutch newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’.

According to Gerrard Boot, Professor of Labour Law, the recommendations of the Committee he chaired on model agreements (Boot Committee) are only partly reflected in the plans of Karien van Gennip, the Dutch Minister of Social Affairs and Employment. The minister is working on a legal presumption of…

Het boek met de titel ‘the story of constitutions’ probeert interdisciplinair te begrijpen waar de grondwet vandaan komt en waarom het juist nu in korte tijd viral is gegaan. Waarom is dit oeroude fenomeen de laatste jaren zo in populariteit toegenomen en ook nog eens in een tijd, waarin democratieën…

Dutch shipbuilder Damen Shipyards has sued the government. With the legal action, the company is seeking compensation for financial loss suffered as a result of the sanctions against Russia.

The Netherlands Council of State ruled at the end of March that WhatsApp and text messages on the work and private cell phones of civil servants are considered to be official records. This decision puts the government in a difficult position. How are you going to store millions of texts and WhatsApp…

The public disclosure of documents under the Dutch Open Government Act (Woo) is often delayed, especially when the information is considered socially or politically sensitive. Dr Annemarie Drahmann, Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative law, explains the case on platform for investigative…

Employees are laying down their work in various sectors, such as regional public transportation and Dutch postal service PostNL. Inflation appears to be increasing dissatisfaction about working conditions, thinks Barend Barentsen, Professor in Labour Law at Leiden University. ‘It's the final straw.’

Szmulewicz, a PhD candidate at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden University, gave two online presentations on ‘The unitary and decentralized state’ and ‘The need to strengthen the autonomy of the territories in the new Constitution in order to reduce regional inequalities’…

Interest group Animal Rights has started a test case to prompt the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) to tackle farmers who do not adequately protect their livestock against wolves. The test case concerns a rejected enforcement request to the NVWA. In it, the NVWA were called…

The winner of this year’s Jaap Doek Children’s Rights Thesis Award wants to raise more awareness for children who have a parent in detention: ‘It’s time we stop looking the other way and actually think about the impact.’

Charlotte Parree won the Jaap Doek Children's Rights Thesis Prize on Tuesday afternoon, 6 December, with her thesis entitled 'Suffering knows no age; active termination of life does.' The prize was awarded for the tenth time by em. prof. Jaap Doek.

Dr. Moritz Jesse, Associate Professor at the Europa Institute, presented two papers at the General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) which took place in Oslo, Norway, in September 2017.

What are the scenarios now the draft Brexit Agreement is on the table? And if the United Kingdom actually proceeds to leave the European Union, what is the time frame? Associate Professor of European Law Armin Cuyvers sheds light on the current state of affairs.

A new Senate (Eerste Kamer) has been elected in the Netherlands and the current government coalition has lost its majority. The majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) have not been this far apart for quite some time. High time to merge both chambers, argues Wim…

PhD defence

Shell, our country's largest company, is constructing a vast plastics plant in the United States. And it is doing so at a time when the European Union, led by the Netherlands, is launching a major pact to combat use of plastic.

Lecture

Conference, Symposium

Anneleen van der Meer discusses Russia's alleged use of chemical weapons in Ukraine in an article for The Conversation.

Wouter Verschoof-van der Vaart has developed a way to use Deep Learning and geography software to rapidly and systematically map prehistoric barrows, Celtic fields, and medieval charcoal kilns. This innovative method has been tested on high-resolution elevation maps from the Veluwe, the Netherlands.…

On 1 October 2019 the Hazelhoff Centre for Financial law hosted its 19th guest lecture starring Paul Sharma, managing director at Alvarez & Marsal and co-head of the European Financial Industry Regulatory Advisory Services practices.