Leiden’s Rapenburg canal was transformed into a magical open-air stage for the jubilee edition of the Leiden Canal Concert, as hundreds gathered to celebrate 450 years of Leiden University. The concert featured an orchestra made up of students and staff performing alongside local artists.

Is it acceptable for an algorithm to make mistakes? Quinten Meertens investigated this at Leiden University and the UvA and has been nominated with his research for the prestigious Christiaan Huygens Science Prize. The winner will be announced on 11 October. In April, Meertens received his doctorate…

Recent developments in AI mean nobody is anonymous nowadays. The search engine PimEyes can find any photo of anyone that’s ever been placed online. No more Tinder Swindlers… or personal privacy. Everyone’s findable now. But is that even allowed?

PhD student Sung-Shik Jongmans of Leiden University and Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica investigated a new programming method to simplify this. On 3 March 2016, he graduated with the exceptional predicate 'cum laude' on his dissertation 'Automata-Theoretic Protocol Programming'. His results are interesting…

During the annual LACDR Spring Symposium, the audience chose PhD student Rob van Wijk as best speaker. Furthermore, six PhD students won a poster prize. Matthias P. Mayer of Heidelberg University opened the symposium with a keynote lecture about chaperone proteins.

Arco Timmermans, Professor by special appointment Public Affairs at the Institute Public Administration discussed the proposed fine that is likely to prevent Unilever from leaving the Netherlands.

This weeks marks the 10th anniversary of the European Research Council. For the past decade, the council has contributed to many scientific projects all over Europe, including Leiden University. It has funded almost 7,000 researchers, leading to just short of 100,000 scientific articles. A total of…

Dutch coalition parties VVD and CDA want to tighten asylum policy and have launched a plan to grant two types of statuses to refugees. They also intend to partially restrict the right to family reunification. However, this plan is facing strong opposition. With the proposal, the government can expect…

A lecturer winning a prize, an expert appearing in the media or a professor giving their inaugural speech: these are faces we often see. But we rarely see the staff who work behind the scenes to make their work possible. They are now featured in the photo exhibition ‘The forces behind the faces’.

In the group presentation in the CSM-elective ‘governance of crime and social disorder’ of teacher Elke Devroe students battled again for the winning lot, namely this blog published in the Leiden university Website.

What do the election results say about the Netherlands today? Students and experts discussed this at an Election Breakfast organised by study association Diqit. Analysts, including Hans-Martien ten Napel, Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, notice a new dividing line in Dutch…

Resistance to antibiotics is a major problem in health care. Thanks to a grant from the Elise Mathilde Fund and the LUF, pharmacologist dr. Coen van Hasselt can look for new dosing schedules to reduce the development of antibiotic resistance.

On Monday 8 April, a high-profile guest visited Leiden Law School. Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Geoffrey van Leeuwen gave a powerful speech to students about defending our interests in all current global developments.

As part of his PhD trajectory, Johannes Boer (PhD candidate at the ACPA), created a music theatre production La Tragedia di Claudio M. .

From mid-September two exhibitions with maps from the collections of Leiden University Libraries are on view. Mapping Asia opens in the National Museum of Ethnology and Mapping Japan in Japanmuseum SieboldHuis. The exhibitions are organised in the context of Leiden Asia Year and the symposium 'Mapping…

Halima Bouras leaves for the City University of New York with her Fulbright scholarship. 'I am very happy with the Fulbright grant and excited to continue my research project in New York next semester', reacts Bouras. The aim of her PhD research is to promote educational opportunities and educational…

In November 2020 former dean Rick Lawson, professor of European Human Rights Law, was elected member of the Management Board of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency in Vienna. He was nominated by the Dutch Government following an open selection procedure.

The British House of Commons International Trade Committee quoted Dr. Joris Larik, Assistant Professor of Comparative, EU and International Law at Leiden University College The Hague, in its report on the “Continuing application of EU trade agreements after Brexit”.

The Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) and the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) want to use private DNA databases for genealogical research in criminal investigations. The method could be used in serious criminal cases that have stalled and it is already being used in investigations abroad. Whether…

In this new series, students have the opportunity to meet leading children's rights experts, including representatives of UN agencies, international civil society organizations and research institutes.

The first Eugene Garfield Award for Innovation In Citation Analysis has been granted to Jian Wang, Assistant Professor in the Science Based Business Program at Leiden University.

A leaving do, birthday or other celebration? Many people like to ask for a donation to a good cause for their birthday or anniversary present. Leiden research can be one such cause.

The promise made in the run-up to the last Dutch elections that the ‘next cabinet formation process will be quicker and more transparent’ has already proven unrealistic. To what extent does a minority Dutch government stand a chance in the Netherlands’ fragmented political landscape? Corné Smit, external…

For a long time, in the United States ‘Schmoozes’ have been organized. These small-scale meetings offer the opportunity to informally discuss important themes. On 12 and 13 October, the first European Schmooze took place in Milan. The topic was ‘Economic Inequality as a Global Constitutional Challenge’.…

Ook Polen wil het recht op een tijdelijk afschaffing op asiel, zo maakte premier Tusk onlangs bekend. Hoe groot zijn de kansen in Brussel en vormt dit een optie voor Nederland? Mark Klaassen, universitair docent Immigratierecht, spreekt over de kwestie in het Algemeen Dagblad.

The first 'Tafel van Thorbecke' took place at Leiden University on Thursday 17 November 2022. For this new lecture series, initiated by Fatma Çapkurt and Gert Jan Geertjes, external scholars will be invited to speak about their research in the field of constitutional and administrative law.

Radical books on Islam glorifying armed jihad and humiliating Jews and Christians are available in the Vught prison library.

Professor of Developmental Biology Christine Mummery and chemist Dr Dennis Hetterscheid have each been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept grant. These grants are to explore the societal potential of ideas generated in previous ERC-funded projects.

Desertification is threatening 250 million people worldwide. Ecologists have tried to predict the spread of deserts. Help is now at hand from an unexpected source: mathematicians.

On Thursday 30 November and Friday 1 December the site-visit took place for the programs BSc Public Administration, MSc Public Administration, MSc Management of the Public Sector and MSc Crisis and Security Management. The programmes are being assessed as part of the Public Administration cluster assessment…

On behalf of trade union FNV, Egbert Jongen and Heike Vethaak from Leiden University conducted a study on income distribution over the past 40 years. Dutch national media outlets have given extensive news coverage to their study.

Leiden University's interdisciplinary research programme SAILS funds young interdisciplinary scientists working at the intersection of AI and other fields. Researcher Matthijs Westera talks about his experiences working within SAILS and the Leiden academic community.

Astrophysicist Ewine van Dishoeck has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva. She received the award on 11 October during the Dies academicus of the Swiss university, which, like Leiden University, is part of the European research university federation LERU.

On 7 and 8 October, a two-day workshop will be hosted by the Van Vollenhoven Institute in collaboration with the University of Oxford’s Border Criminologies network and the Social Citizenship & Migration assisted area. The theme of the workshop will be ‘Border policing, boundary creation and emotion…

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…

Three NGOs are suing the Dutch state for actively contributing to the suffering of refugees on Greek islands. In Dutch newspaper ‘Trouw’, the organisations say that the suffering was caused by the Netherlands agreeing to the EU-Turkey deal.

On 13 April, an expert meeting to discuss the doctoral thesis of Eduardo Arenas Catalán was held at Leiden Law School. The discussion, chaired by Aart Hendriks, Professor of Health Law at Leiden Law School, included the contributions from Javier Couso Salas, Professor at Universidad Diego Portales and…

Dr. Stephanie Rap, Denise Verkroost, LL.M. and prof. Mariëlle Bruning conducted a research on the participation of children in youth care in the Netherlands. In 2016 the first part, a legal desk-research on the possibilities for children to participate in youth care procedures and decision-making in…

The Republic of Indonesia celebrated its 75th Independence Day on 17 August 2020. As a gift to celebrate this, on the initiative of a group of Leiden alumni*), a biography will be written of Leiden and Indonesian scholar Hoesein Djajadiningrat.

Dr. Eduardo Arenas Catalán, lecturer and Academic Coordinator of the Advanced Master’s in European and International Human Rights Law at Leiden Law School, was awarded the Theo van Boven - Maastricht Research Prize 2018 for his doctoral thesis: “Solidarity and the right to health in the era of healthcare…

A one-day conference was organised by the International Institute of Air and Space Law at Leiden University on 11 May 2023, in the lead-up to the 14th Leiden-Sarin International Air Law Moot Court Competition. The topic of the conference was ‘Aviation Cybersecurity’, which was also the topic of this…

A clear, unambiguous definition of an extraparliamentary cabinet still seems to be missing in the political arena of The Hague. Caroline van der Plas, Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB) party leader, wants to discuss this issue with the party chairs of the Dutch coalition parties. Wim Voermans, Professor…

The Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport is to appeal against a recent court ruling on the Public Access to Government Information Act (Wet openbaarheid van bestuur, WOB). The court ruled that the way in which the Ministry handles WOB requests was not in accordance with the law.

Alumnus Petri Freundlich received the first prize for his LL.M. thesis in the category Master’s theses and academic articles of the Max van der Stoel Human Rights awards 2017

The fact that a significant number of seats in the Dutch provincial councils are now occupied by members of the Dutch Farmer-Citizen Movement (BoerBurgerBeweging, BBB) who have an agricultural background need not lead to conflicts of interest when voting on, for example, nitrogen emissions. This is…

With its Green Deal The European Union has set itself much-needed ambitious climate goals. But the energy crisis and geopolitical tensions are making these difficult to achieve. Seven researchers from the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities (LDE) alliance have written a white paper offering solutions.

On 4 April 2024, a meeting of the standing committee of the Dutch House of Representatives was held. At this meeting, Anna Marhold, Assistant Professor at the Grotius Centre and Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, informed the committee about the economic and legal implications of a military…

Insurance companies are registering more and more people for having committed fraud. In principle, it is a good idea to tackle cases of fraud. However, research shows that an increasing number of people are being wrongly included on the fraud list. According to Bart Custers, Professor of Law & Data…

Anke Smits and Lucien van Beek have been awarded a Praesidium Libertatis Grant this year. Smits is an assistant professor at the LUMC and Van Beek at the Faculty of Humanities. They each receive a sum of 75,000 euros from the Leiden University Fund (LUF).

Last Wednesday, a very special edition of the Lunch Seminars took place in a combined session between the research programs Interaction between Legal Systems and Reform of Social Legislation. Jason Beckfield, Professor in Sociology at Harvard University, gave a very interesting presentation on Social…