Just off the coast of Libya, aid organisations try to rescue boat migrants. The confiscation of one of the rescue ships shows how important but difficult it is for aid organisations to remain neutral, independent and impartial, says Eugenio Cusumano.

Yesterday, the European Commission presented its long-anticipated proposal for an AI regulation. After the Commission had outlined the European legislation at the start of 2020 in its white paper on artificial intelligence ‘A European approach to excellence and trust’, a concrete proposal for a European…

“The union’s 60th birthday is not a moment for gifts and cake, but for reinvention around three new strategic idea. (…) The new Europe must protect, improvise and tolerate opposition”. This is what Prof. Luuk van Middelaa, Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union and its Institutions,…

On 19 December 2024, Dr Constanta Rosca’s monograph, ‘Digital Arms for Digital Consumer Harms: Mapping Legal and Technical Solutions for Dark Patterns in EU Consumer Law’, was published as an open access book by the institutional, library-led publisher of Maastricht University, Maastricht University…

Arco Timmermans, professor by special appointment in Public Affairs at the Institute of Public Administration, is co-editor of this book focused on comparing engagements in policy advisory systems.

Municipalities are becoming more and more selective when it comes to the nationality, age and sex of the asylum seekers they are willing to take in. This is the outcome of an investigation by Dutch newspaper NRC. And the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) agrees with the results.…

In the period between the First and the Second World War, many Muslim intellectuals came to Europe. What impact did they have on each other’s, as well as on European thinking, and how were they in turn influenced? Leiden Islam expert Dr Umar Ryad has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant to investigate…

Olga Ceran was a speaker at the European Constitutional Law Review (EuConst) Symposium for Young Scholars that took place in Maastricht on 18 June 2024.

The Summer School ‘The European Union, the United Nations and Global Governance’ is open to Master-level and PhD students. It is supported by the European Union’s Jean Monnet program.

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.

The first results of the “Policing European Metropolises project” (PEMP) that associate Professor Elke Devroe and Professor P. Ponsaers launched in April 2013 are now published. Having been the referent for The Netherlands and Belgium in the Urbis project (Leonardo programme), the project focuses on…

On 27 and 28 June 2023, an extensive conference was held on the past and future of Europe’s free travel area: the Schengen zone. The Europa Institute, represented by Jorrit Rijpma, joined forces with the Odysseus Network of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Konstanz University, and the Royal Egmont…

Melanie Fink, Assistant Professor of European law, has received a Veni grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). This research grant will allow Dr Fink to develop her ideas on ‘Gateways for Humanity: The Duty to Reason in the Automated State’ over a period of three years.

Dutch newspaper Trouw investigated the tax position of multinational Cargill. Their conclusion? Cargill appears not to pay taxes over their profits. Trouw asked Jan van de Streek, Professor of Tax Law, and PhD candidate Josephine van der Have for an explanation. Prior to this, Van der Have had also…

On 20 April 2017 Jorrit Rijpma, Eugenio Cusumano, and Melanie Fink organise a Workshop to discuss the legal and policy implications of the surge in privately conducted search and rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean. The Workshop takes place in cooperation between the Law School and the Faculty…

Dutch political party VVD wants to set up a 'Mini Schengen zone' to control immigration better. But that is easier said than done, says Professor of European Law, Jorrit Rijpma.

Front-of-pack nutrition labelling, origin labelling, regulation of voluntary green claims made by food business operators: the EU is currently looking into various reforms of the legal framework for food information to consumers. The goal: healthier and more sustainable diets.

Nowadays, it is almost impossible to imagine warfare without unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. For instance, they have been deployed in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Are the current laws of war adequate to address the use of drones? PhD candidate James Welch will defend his thesis on 21 March.

‘Visibility and secrecy are both valuable tactics and should not be antagonized in LGBT movements, ’ says Jingshu Zhu. Zhu will defend her dissertation on Wednesday 21 February. Time for a short interview with the PhD candidate.

The Graduation Ceremony 2022 of the master's Law & Society took place on 7 September 2022 in the Telders Room of the Academy Building in Leiden.

Het kabinet is voornemens om het strengste asielbeleid ooit te gaan voeren. In het NRC geven Peter Rodrigues (emeritus hoogleraar immigratierecht) en Mark Klaassen (universitair docent immigratierecht) commentaar op dit voornemen.

Beryl ter Haar is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Warsaw, Poland. The Law School is the oldest part of the university (founded in 1808), followed by the School of Medicine (founded one year later). The two schools became the heart of Warsaw University which was founded in 1816 by…

On Friday 2 December 2016, an international, multidisciplinary Research Conference on “Private law and market regulation – interaction, interference or inconsistency?” will be held in Leiden, hosted by the Coherent Private Law research group of Leiden Law School. The conference will be focused on two…

At the conference ‘Law-Making in Multilevel Settings: Federalism, Europe and Beyond’, Ruben de Graaff and Dorine Verheij provided a lecture on the topic of ‘EU Regulations and the Spirit of Codification’.

Konstantinos Zoumpoulakis, Research Assistant at the Institute of Criminal Law & Criminology, has written a report on this conference

The Advisory Committee on Public International Law (Dutch abbreviation CAVV) is an independent body which provides the government and parliament of the Netherlands with advice, both solicited and unsolicited, on issues related to public international law.

Dr. Kosta presented at the Global Forum on Democratizing Work.

Maartje van der Woude, Professor of Law and Society at the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society, has been elected, after a vote among the members of the Law and Society Association (LSA), as one of the eight ‘elected trustees’ to join the ‘Board of Trustees’ of the LSA.

In the largest study of ancient DNA ever conducted, an international team of scientists has revealed the complex story behind one of the defining periods in European prehistory. The study is published this week in the journal Nature.

Is EU law still supreme? Most national high courts have formulated some limits on the absolute supremacy claimed by EU law.

The Department of Humanities of the University of Pavia will host the Third European Symposium in Celtic Studies from 7 to 9 September 2022. Papers are invited on any aspect of Celtic Studies, including language, literature, history, archaeology and culture from any period. Deadline for submission:…

On 12 May, GTGC Deputy Coordinator Valentina Carraro presented her work during the symposium “EU Crises: Rethinking European integration theories” at Maastricht University. The symposium was organised as part of the farewell event for the retirement of Prof. Tannelie Blom.

On 27 November 2018, the Center for Legal and Comparative Studies of the East African Community of Leiden University (LEAC) is organizing, in close cooperation with Strathmore University Law School, the University of Nairobi Law School and the IRID, the Fourth LEAC Conference on the topic “Teaching…

Lecture, Lecture part of a series

Mahmood Kooria shows in his dissertation that Islam often adapts to the regional context. PhD defense 14 December.

In October, Sophie Starrenburg was elected as a member of the Coordinating Committee of the ESIL Interest Group on the International Law of Culture. She will work alongside Giovanni Carlo Bruno (Italian National Research Council), Andrzej Jakubowski (Polish Academy of Studies), and Lucas Lixinski (University…

In the Pioneers of Leiden University series we talk to past and present students who were the first in their family to go to university. In this fourth instalment: alumnus and philosopher of law Ali Kösedag (1992): ‘Philosophising about equality before the law in the Netherlands at an early-morning…

The title of European City of Science was officially handed over to a delegation from Leiden in the Italian city of Trieste on 6 September. Leiden will be the science capital of Europe for the year 2022. The EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF), the largest interdisciplinary science conference in Europe, will…

The new Dutch cabinet aims to reduce the number of asylum seeks coming to the Netherlands by introducing a number of asylum policy measures. Dr Mark Klaassen, Assistant Professor of Immigration Law, discusses this in Dutch daily newspaper 'de Telegraaf'.

Students attending Richard Albert’s seminar on constitutional change asked Reijer critical questions about an article he recently wrote with Maarten Stremler.

In October 2020, the Dutch Journal of Administrative Law had a special PhD issue, giving an overview of all PhD research currently being conducted in the area of administrative law in the Netherlands.

We are glad to present our new research report on Exploring the Frontiers of International Law (EFIL). International Law has traditionally been one of the flagship areas of the Leiden Law School. The report provides a taste of our rich research agenda in international law.

The EU is aiming to deter economic coercion with a new legal instrument. Freya Baetens will elucidate this in her inaugural lecture on October 27th.

‘Who will succeed Frans Timmermans in Brussels?’ is the title of the article in Dutch financial newspaper Financieele Dagblad (FD). Various candidates have been reviewed and all are contenders. But a female candidate may still have an advantage, believes Luuk van Middelaar, Professor of Foundations…

On Thursday 3rd of March 2016 the 14th Norbert Schmelzer, organized annually by the CDA party, took place in the Hague. This year the lecture was given by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

The Global Summit on Constitutionalism took place from 16 to 18 March. Wim Voermans, Gert Jan Geertjes and Rowie Stolk, from the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, travelled to Austin where the conference was organised by the School of Law of the University of Texas at Austin.

Free trade negotiations and agreements are important instruments of EU trade policy. An increasing number of EU climate, environmental and sustainable development objectives play a role in free trade agreements.