Today, the Dutch Advisory Board on public access and government information (ACOI) issued its opinion on how the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) makes documents on Covid policy accessible to the public.

Polls conducted by I&O research point to a political landslide. What's in store for the Netherlands? The polls show that the new party of MP Pieter Omtzigt is well-positioned for the upcoming election, with an expected 31 seats, but only 3 for the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA) party. It is obvious…

In the aftermath of the child care benefits scandal in the Netherlands, politicians in The Hague turned to self-reflection and, as a result, the call for the introduction of a constitutional court is growing louder. Pieter Omtzigt, a popular conservative politician and leader of the new party New Social…

Landen om ons heen laten zien: als burgers mogen meedenken, komt er beweging in vastgelopen politieke discussies. Zou een dergelijke derde kamer ook de oplossing kunnen zijn voor Nederland, waar samenleving en overheid elkaar steeds verder uit het oog lijken te verliezen?

Dutch Mayor Eddy Bilder has once again come under scrutiny over his ancillary positions. He was previously the subject of negative media attention due to his role as landlord and now as a regulator of the foundation Stichting Het Oversticht. Geerten Boogaard, Professor of Local Government, discussed…

During her time as Speaker of the Dutch House of Representatives, Arib was, among other things, accused of creating an 'unsafe working environment'. To prevent disclosure of the case, she is taking legal action to demand access to all documents and their subsequent destruction. In addition, she is demanding…

Leiden Law Cast is a podcast made by Leiden Law School, Leiden University, for everyone who wants to learn more about current legal issues.

In his report, Dutch cabinet negotiator Kim Putters proposes the formation of a ‘programme cabinet’ and an outline agreement. The four political parties involved have agreed on this form of cabinet, and Putters therefore appears to have succeeded in his mission. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional…

Fundamental rights protect citizens from the government, but they are not absolute. A crisis situation not only gives the government the opportunity to restrict freedoms, it also shows citizens how far it is willing to go in doing so. ‘In the [Dutch] cabinets led by Rutte, there seems to be less and…

The Dutch cabinet formation – a process that has now been underway for five months – is at a standstill for the time being. Formation discussion leaders Elbert Dijkgraaf and Richard van Zwol are due to publish their report in mid-May. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, updates listeners…

It recently became clear that the Dutch Ministry of Health would rather pay a penalty than share information about the controversial face mask deal with former CDA party activist Sywert van Lienden. Dutch news site Nieuwsuur reports that this is no exception. In recent years newspaper De Volkskrant…

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…

Two years ago, Russian tanks crossed the border into Ukraine. The war seems to be getting closer and closer. Is it time to dust off and reintroduce military service? Our students have their say.

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 most recent edition of the journal ‘The Theory and Practice of Legislation’ contains a contribution by Jelle But, Demy Jongkind and Wim Voermans.

Voters sent a clear signal in the recent Dutch provincial council elections with the 'monster' victory for the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BoerBurgerBeweging, BBB). This sign of ‘social resistance’ has consequences for the policy on nitrogen emissions, according to Geerten Boogaard, Professor of Local…

Leiden Law Cast is a podcast made by Leiden Law School, Leiden University, for everyone who wants to learn more about current legal issues.

PhD defence

Jeroen Touwen has been reappointed as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Humanities from 1 January. ‘The Faculty Board’s role is to serve the organisation: we try to manage the University as effectively as possible with the available resources, so that research and education can flourish.’

In order to build wind turbines and electric cars, we need tons of magnets. Currently, we import these mainly from China, which means Europe is very dependent on this superpower for the energy transition. This has to change, according to industrial ecologist René Kleijn. In the REEsilience project,…

Patients and healthcare providers use Remote Patient Management platforms to exchange information with each other. New methods like this are desperately needed to future-proof our healthcare systems. Professor Maaike Kleinsmann is working to scale up these systems and implement them nationwide.

Conference, Book launch

PhD defence

In the Netherlands, various local VVD parties are calling for an asylum stop. Other political parties, Ja21, BBB, PVV and FvD, also see an asylum stop as the solution to the continuing asylum problems. Earlier, an opinion poll showed that a majority (69 per cent) of the Dutch population agrees. Is an…

More and more reports appear in de media claiming that Frontex, the organisation coordinating the joint border control of the European Union, has been helping the Greek coastguard to stop asylum seekers at sea. In doing so, has Frontex endangered the lives of migrants?

Guest lecture immigration law by Secretary of State Broekers-Knol On 5 March 2020.

University Lecturer Nadine Akkerman concluded her book tour for her book 'Invisible Agents' in England at the Hay Festival. At the festival, attended by almost four thousand people, Invisible Agents was one of the most discussed books and caught the attention of the national newspaper and The Times.

The Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) invites applications for a postdoctoral Researcher (0.8 fte for 3 years) in the ERC Starting Grant project ‘Pages of Prayer: The Ecosystem of Vernacular Prayer Books in the Late Medieval Low Countries, c. 1380-1550’ (PRAYER). Candidates are…

Public authorities are increasingly being fined for failure to comply with decision periods specified in the Dutch Open Government Act (Woo). But to what extent is this remedy still effective? Geerten Boogaard, Professor of Local Government, discussed this on 'Mr.', a recognised platform for legal professionals…

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.

Whether it's brushing up on a language, a course on current legal issues, or a master's degree in cybersecurity. Get inspired at the Online Open Day for Professionals on 2 November.

This regulation – also known as the AI Act – aims to ensure that AI systems sold and used in the EU are safe and consistent with existing fundamental rights legislation and Union values. AI harvests its factual material on the Internet, but in some cases it can be misleading. This is sufficient reason…

The acquittal of Richard de Mos and his fellow party member has caused quite a stir in the Netherlands. Can De Mos simply return to local politics now? And has the issue finally been settled?

Recently, Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, and Jaroslaw Kantorowicz, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs and a research associate at the Department of Economics, were awarded a grant from the KNAW Statesman Thorbecke Fund. This grant will…

The first ILS Lunch Seminar of 2017 will take place on Monday 30 January. During this lunch seminar series all researchers from Leiden Law School can present their research. The idea is to hear in a simple and nice way what researchers from other research programs and institutes are working on. During…

On Wednesday 13 December at 13.45 hrs Jaap Wieland will defend his doctoral thesis entitled ‘De bescherming van concurrentiebelangen in het bestuursrecht’ (the Protection of Competition Interests in Administrative Law) at the Academy Building of Leiden University. His supervisors are Professor Willemien…

The jubilee conference for the centenary of the Vereniging van Drentse Gemeenten (the association of municipalities in the province of Drenthe) took place on 23 September. The conference focussed on the collaboration between the municipalities, the province and the water boards in Drenthe past, present,…

An investigation carried out by Dutch news programme Nieuwsuur has revealed that despite a recent ruling by the Centrale Raad van Beroep (Central Appeals Tribunal, CRvB), people who for years cared for a seriously ill relative paid for via a PGB (persoonsgebondenbudget, personal care budget) do not…

The compulsory reading list is infamous among secondary school students, and for all the wrong reasons. This prompted the Faculty of Humanities and the Onderwijsnetwerk Zuid-Holland (South Holland Education Network) to launch the Alternative Reading List Award, in search of books that motivate young…

Postdoc and linguist Evelyn Bosma receives the Keetje Hodshon Prize for her dissertation. For her research on the multilingualism of Frisian children, Bosma previously won the Klokhuis Science Prize and the Campus Fryslân Science Prize.

Adhesives are an incredibly important part of every day life. They help hold together everything from shoes and mobile phones to satellites in space. But we didn’t invent adhesives: Neanderthals did, to make handles for stone tools over 191,000 years ago. Leiden researchers now found that Neanderthals…

For hundreds of years, children in Ancient Egypt learned to read using The Satire of the Trades, a text in which a father gives advice to his son through descriptions of different professions. PhD candidate Judith Jurjens investigated how this worked in practice.

Neuroscientist Elseline Hoekzema receives a large European grant from the European Research Council (ERC). This ERC starting grant for promising young researchers allows her to investigate the effects of pregnancy on the brain in detail.

This year, two Leiden physicists have earned a prestigious ERC Starting Grant. With a budget of 1.5 million euros, this is one of the largest individual grants for scientists.

Study information

With a starting grant of the European Research Council (ERC) for promising young researchers, Eiko Fried aims to develop a personalised early warning system, that will reliably forecast depression before it occurs. Fried (Clinical Psychology) talks about this WARN-D, promising to radically transform…

Lecture

An Honours Class about the ostensibly unrecognisable worlds of insular Southeast Asia teaches students a fundamental piece of wisdom:

Using the motto 'Exploring humanities through the life of objects' the Thingsthattalk platform gives a voice to historical objects that are usually kept behind closed doors. Objects from various Leiden collections are going to be made public and placed within a historical and user context.

At one time, the railway from Kimberley to Kambove in Southern Africa symbolised prosperity and progress. Today, the exhausted mining towns along its route are marked by decay and pollution. Professor Jan-Bart Gewald has been awarded an NWO L grant to investigate the long-term global consequences.