South Africa is suing Israel on charges of genocide in Gaza. The case is being heard at the International Court of Justice in The Hague this week. Professor Larissa van den Herik, an expert in Public International Law specialising in the law on genocide, explains the situation to NOS.

We are very happy to announce that two candidates of the Europa Institute won the Meijers PhD grant of 2018. Both PhD-students will perform highly topical research into different areas of EU law for the coming four years.

A conference organized by Niels Blokker, professor of International Institutional Law and Ramses Wessel (RUG) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the International Organizations Law Review.

Vincent Delhomme delivered a keynote speech on the topic of food affordability at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, on 22 January 2025. The event focused on achieving a balanced food system that is sustainable, healthy, and affordable.

The Dutch Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV) recently published its report ‘The war in Ukraine: A geopolitical shock to the system’. On 7 July 2022, the Dutch House of Representatives had asked the Advisory Council to provide an expedited report on the consequences of the war for Dutch…

The Minister has requested urgent advice from Sombroek-van Doorm in relation to the vaccination of children aged between 5 and 12 years against COVID-19.

On 26 November 1940, Professor Cleveringa – at the time the Dean of Leiden Law School – spoke out in protest against the decision of the Nazi Occupying Powers to dismiss Jewish academics. Every year Leiden University appoints a professor as rotating Cleveringa Chair, whose task, amongst others, is to…

Yvonne ten Cate (supervisor: Peter Rodrigues, and Marije Meijer (supervisor: Mark Klaassen) were both nominated for the Jaap Doek Scriptieprijs – an award for the best master thesis in the field of children’s rights – and the Hanneke Steenbergen Scriptieprijs – an award for the best master thesis in…

The Council of State in the Netherlands has drawn up a programme of reflection to evaluate the role of the highest administrative court in the child benefits scandal and to learn lessons for the future.

On 3 March the book “The European Union as an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice” edited by Maria Fletcher, Claudio Matera and Esther Herlin-Karnell was officially presented at a symposium at VU University Amsterdam.

Meet Rosa: pleading (successfully!) in an LGBTQIA+ case before the CJEU as an early-career lawyer

At the annual conference of the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Wetgeving (the Dutch association for legislation) that was held in the Auditorium of the Ministries of Internal Affairs and Kingdom Relations and Justice and Security in The Hague on Thursday 6 October, Gert Jan Geertjens defended the draft…

Rogier Kegge, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Law of Leiden University, was interviewed by Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant in response to the recent recommendations by Johan Remkes on how to approach the nitrogen crisis.

On Wednesday 12 May Dr Ian Buruma held the bi-annual Geremek lecture, entitled “The borders of the West”.

On Friday 20 January the Meijers Awards were presented for the best article published in 2016 written by a researcher in the final phase of their PhD research. The winners received a certificate and prize money to be put towards their research.

Last week, the Dutch Council of Ministers adopted the decision to modernise the process of prosecuting politicians. This action was taken following the Russian bribery scandal involving Dutch politicians. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, discusses this in Dutch daily newspaper ‘NRC’.

The waiting lists in youth care are alarmingly long. This has been confirmed again by a study carried out by a Dutch foundation The Forgotten Child.

Stephanie Rap and Chrisje Sandelowsky-Bosman have contributed as authors to the online training manual for lawyers, that is developed as part of the training programme Advancing the Defence Rights of Children.

On 16 February, Leiden University participated in the Dutch National Rounds of the 2024 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the world's largest moot court competition featuring participants from approximately 700 law schools across the world.

Recently the WTO panel report on India – Solar Cells (DS 456) was distributed. Under India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), solar power developers were required to use certain types of solar cells and modules manufactured in India for power generation projects in order to ultimately…

The Europa Instituut of the University of Leiden and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law annually organize a conference to discuss current developments in European Union Law.

The Dutch Council of Ministers has approved the appointment of a Vice President and of three justices, including Professor Sierd Schaafsma, in the Supreme Court of the Netherlands.

Szmulewicz, a PhD candidate at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, has written an article on intergovernmental relations (IGR) from a multidisciplinary perspective, considering law in the text and law-in-action, while analysing paradigmatic cases as well as comparative perspecti…

Olga Ceran was one of the speakers at the SCEUS Young Scholars Workshop on EU studies on 14 and 15 March 2024 in Salzburg (Austria).

At the request of outgoing minister Stef Blok, the Province of Groningen wrote a letter to support the minister in his rejection of two amendments by the Dutch House of Representatives.

On 1 February 2017 there was a hearing in the committee on European affairs of the second chamber of the Dutch Parliament on the issue of

The new scholarly journal ‘Voetbal- & Sportjuridische Zaken’, published by Boom Juridische Uitgevers, will focus on current legal aspects related to sport with particular attention for football.

Esteban Szmulewic , PhD candidate at the Constitutional and Administrative Law Department has written a paper on the comparison between Italy and the Netherlands, covering the first part of the pandemic (2020 and early 2021). The article has been published in the prestigious 'Journal Diritto Publico…

Professor of Constitutional Law, Wim Voermans, is surprised by the decision of PVV ministers to resign at the request of party leader Geert Wilders. Voermans says in Mr. Online that Wilders 'has no constitutional authority to do so.'

On 2 April 2025, Anna Marhold, a member of the Peace and Security Committee of the AIV and Assistant Professor at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, joined a technical briefing to parliament providing advice on hybrid threats and societal resilience.

We are launching more and more satellites and space is filling up as a result. Currently around 100 million pieces of space debris are floating around Earth. So who’s going to clear it up?

As part of the course International Property Law, the Advanced LLM ICCL 2016-2017 students paid a visit to the Kadaster office in Rotterdam, one of the offices in the Netherlands where property is registered. They were accompanied by their teacher Jeroen van der Weide of the Institute for Private La…

More and more countries have decided to introduce compulsory vaccination. According to various experts, compulsory vaccination, under certain conditions, could help the situation in the Netherlands.

If it were up to Ursula von der Leyen, a positive opinion on Ukraine's application for membership would be forthcoming this Friday, 17 June.

Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in 2007. In 2011, the European Commission announced these Member States’ readiness to fully apply the Schengen rules and lift controls at the internal borders with other Member States. However, that decision has to be taken by the Council with unanimity. A number of…

In the last few weeks Armin Cuyvers was several times in the news on Brexit. He was a studio guest during the new years episode of Legal Affairs on BNR national radio and he was a studio guest in the news programme EenVandaag.

Terminating the Trade Treaty between the US, Mexico and Canada, as Trump intends, violates the treaty and also has implications for labour law, says emeritus professor of international labour law, Paul van der Heijden, in Dutch newspaper ‘Het Financieele Dagblad’.

For the first time, a court has ordered a company to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions. Lawyers see it as a landmark ruling that will have far-reaching consequences for Shell and possibly also other similar companies.

Een demonstratie in de Utrechtse gemeenteraad zorgde onlangs voor veel opschudding en leidde tot een aangifte. Volgens Rowie Stolk, universitair docent Staats- en bestuursrecht, ‘is het juist de bedoeling van zo’n demonstratie dat het ophef veroorzaakt en een beetje wringt’. Dit leidt er vaak toe dat…

On the occasion of International Human Rights Day, 10 December, an international conference was organized by the Moscow-based Сenter for Constitutional Studies.

The aviation sector is now fully aware of the major impact of the corona crisis. Airline companies are appealing to governments for help.

De rol van de Eerste Kamer is het toetsen van wetten op uitvoerbaarheid. Wim Voermans, hoogleraar Staatsrecht, zegt voor NPO Radio1 dat de Eerste Kamer nu te veel een politieke rol in plaats van een controlerende rol vervult.

Techreuzen strijken de winst op en gemeenten en de overheid zitten met maatschappelijke en financiële lasten. In Binnenlands Bestuur, luidt Reijer Passchier, hoogleraar Digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat aan de OU en universitair docent Staatsrecht de noodklok over deze disbalans.

Het team van vier studenten fiscaal recht heeft zich geplaatst voor de finale van de meest prestigieuze wereldwijde pleitcompetitie op het terrein van internationaal en Europees belastingrecht.

In de uitzending van Café Kockelmann op18 april werd aandacht besteed aan twee belangrijke politieke thema’s: het vertrek van Pieter Omtzigt na 21 jaar uit politiek Den Haag en de roerige totstandkoming van de voorjaarsnota. Wim Voermans, hoogleraar Staatsrecht, was te gast in de uitzending.

In the aftermath of the childcare benefits affair in the Netherlands, the treatment of citizens by public authorities is more often a subject of discussion. This also applies to the period within which citizens can lodge an objection to a government decision.

Legal frameworks are often a pitfall when it comes to citizens’ initiatives. Esmee Driessen, a guest lecturer at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law and an expert in citizen participation, conducted research on the support and facilitation of citizens' initiatives. In a Dutch journal…

The latest issue of the European Journal of International Law features an article written by Dr Joris Larik entitled 'Imitation as Flattery: The UK’s Trade Continuity Agreements and the EU’s Normative Foreign Policy'.