The main aim of this project is to reveal and unravel the invisible histories of the UN, transcending the dominant Western perspective to recover the historical agency of Global South actors. The research will investigate how the UN has both facilitated and limited their role in shaping global order…

A large delegation composed of 11 delegates from institutes from the Faculty of Science has made an extensive visit to China and enhanced Leiden’s influence in the Chinese academia, industry and local government.

On 14 November 2019, Luis Fiallos Pazmino defended his thesis 'Legal Perspectives on the Cross Border Operations of Unmanned Aircraft Systems'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. P.M.J. Mendes de Leon and Prof. E.C.P.D.C. De Brabandere.

The case note examines the recent views adopted by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on a communication against Belgium.

Psychologists of Leiden University and Peking University will collaborate to investigate the deficiencies in emotion recognition in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The new collaboration fits very well in the policy of Leiden University in which intensified collaboration with China has…

Leiden University has long had a special interest in and relationship with China.

Professor of Modern China Florian Schneider researches what people do with technology and what technology does with people. Social media, for example. And then mainly in China.

This book examines the impact of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on national and international jurisprudence, since its adoption in 1989.

Comprehensive, scholarly compilation of legal studies of substantive and procedural children’s rights, breaking new ground by analysing a wide range of international children's rights issues.

Zeynep Sarlak defended her thesis on 25 August 2020

On 19 September 2019, Lynette Janssen defended her thesis 'EU Bank Resolution Framework: A comparative study on the relation with national private law'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof.mr. W.A.K. Rank and prof. M. Haentjens.

Ton Liefaard, Stephanie Rap and Peter Rodrigues have edited the book 'Monitoring Children’s Rights in the Netherlands. 30 Years of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child' (Leiden University Press).

How do Chinese view the Netherlands, and what do they experience here? These and other matters were discussed February 9th at the conference: “China, the Netherlands and Europe” which took place in Leiden. The conference, organized by the LeidenAsiaCentre, also marked the opening of the Leiden Asia…

The rise of populist parties, the expansion of the role of the state and now the fragmentation of the Senate and the House of Representatives: Dutch political reality has changed rapidly over recent decades. These developments are in stark contrast to Dutch constitutional law that has remained almost…

Recently the Department of Child Law of Leiden Law School (Leiden University) launched the Leiden Children’s Rights Observatory.

On 18 September 2019, Huw Llewellyn defended his thesis 'An Institutional Perspective on the United Nations Criminal Tribunals: Governance, Independence and Impartiality'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. N.M. Blokker and Prof. L.J. van den Herik.

PhD defence

On 18 May 2022 Lan-Yi Yang successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

As children learn, develop and acquire more skills, their legal position also changes. Professor of Children’s Rights Ton Liefaard works closely together with Leiden social sciences researchers to shed light on these growing capacities and their implications for our legal system. ‘Our ideas about children’s…

Cooperation on education with China stimulates innovation and brings a different perspective and new content to classrooms.

For ‘Voor de Ommekeer-TV’, an online television network created by leading Dutch journalists and thinkers to stimulate in-depth journalism and debate, Armin Cuyvers was the studio guest of journalist Paul van Liempt for an hour-long interview on the EU and the many challenges it faces, including Brexit,…

This article studies the securitization of immigration in the United States of America (U.S.), through the analysis of the National Security Strategies (NSS) published between 2002 and 2017, using a two-layered analytical framework that combines securitization theory and agenda setting theory.

The Hague Program for Cyber Norms, a research program at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, published its second policy brief, in which Dennis Broeders, Liisi Adamson and Rogier Creemers explore aspects of the relationship between China and Russia in cyberspace.

The third edition of the bi-annual Children's Rights Moot Court has come to a spectacular end in the first week of April.

This article written by Marieke Liem & Alexander Kamprad investigates the relationship between terrorism and interpersonal violence. They conducted cross-national analyses on the effects of terrorism mortality rates on homicide rates. Results showed that terrorism appears to be robustly and positively…

Our library contains around 23,000 books, journals and historical documents under the care of a specialized librarian.

This year on June 8-12, the Annual Convention of the Austrian and Central European Centres was organised in Leiden. At this convention, directors and (PhD) students from all over the world come together to meet, have presentations by the students on their topics of expertise, and to get the know the…

Going to school during the summer holidays? Some of our students accepted the challenge. And they didn’t do that just around the corner. During their holidays, students bio pharmaceutical sciences and computer science visited special summer schools in China. ‘China is a global player that we should…

Professor Ann Skelton has been elected as Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.

How to improve the method in quantifying the combined effects of metal-based chemicals?

In a collaborative effort between the Leiden Children’s Rights Observatory, the Leiden Law Academy, UNICEF and the Petitions Section of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a symposium held last week commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Optional Protocol to the Convention…

Lecture, LIAS Lunch Talk Series

From 23 to 27 January 2017, the Child Law Department and the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden Law School organized the first regional edition of the Leiden University Frontiers of Children’s Rights Summer School. The Frontiers of Children’s Rights in the ASEAN Region was set…

On 20 October 2021 Michael Ramsden defended the thesis 'The Role of the United Nations General Assembly in Advancing Accountability for Atrocity Crimes: Legal Powers and Effects'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. N.M. Blokker.

Leiden students organised a Model United Nations (MUN) from 3 to 6 May in The Hague. An MUN simulates the working of the United Nations and is intended to allow students to learn about the practice of international relations. View the photo series.

On the 20th of April, Chams Benoît Bernard successfully defended a doctoral thesis. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Chams on this achievement!

PhD defence

In this commentary, Sabine Witting, Assistant Professor at eLaw, provides a comprehensive analysis of the Second Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

From 26 August until 5 September 2019, a group of 20 Chinese government officials, industry representatives and academics attended an intensive course on space law and policy at the International Institute of Air and Space Law, organized in cooperation with Avans+ in Breda.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations (UN). The world looked a lot different then than it does now. It is therefore important that the UN moves with the times. Together with experts from the Stimson Center, Joris Larik , Assistant Professor at Leiden University…

Tuna Kalaycı, ed. Archaeologies of Roads. 2023.

Anja Groten investigates matters of collectivity, drawing from the experience of working with the Amsterdam-based collective Hackers & Designers (H&D)*.

This dissertation explores matters of collectivity, drawing from the experience of working with the Amsterdam-based collective Hackers & Designers (H&D).

Researchers of the department of Child Law have submitted an advice to the Committee on the Rights of the Child of the United Nations, which monitors the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, on 7 January 2019.

On Wednesday 18 May, the students of the LL.M. Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights presented their work to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child with the aim to provide recommendations on how to make its decision more accessible to children.

Dutch radio corporation ‘BNR’ contacted Willemijn Aerdts, a lecturer at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, for her opinion on the arrest. ‘It seldom happens that someone gets caught. What is interesting is that he was both caught and is being prosecuted in the USA.’

On 17 February 2016 Armin Cuyvers was invited to speak at the Liverpool European Law Unit (LELU) in a seminar on ‘Legitimacy and participation in the EU’. In his presentation, entitled ‘National parliaments as training wheels of EU democracy?