The United Kingdom’s relationship with the European Union was supposed to be definitively settled several times during the past decade – yet it was not. The 2016 referendum brought about a surge in interest in legal questions, especially of EU law and international economic law. This presented scholars…

Building cultures of legality: lawmaking and anxiety in the office of the Governor General.

From deepfakes and disinformation to killer robots, surgical robots and AI lawmaking: AI (Artificial Intelligence) is changing our world. That raises the question whether this requires some form of regulation. At eLaw, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University, prof. Bart Custers…

This dissertation presents a legal geographical analysis of the heritage laws of the independent English-speaking islands of the Lesser Antilles.

Khadija Kadrouch-Outmany defended her thesis on 16 September 2014.

What is Interaction between Legal Systems (ILS) and what does it entail as research profile area at Leiden Law School? More on this at the kick-off event of ILS 2.0. This will take place on Wednesday 26 October 15.00 – 17.00 in the Grotiuszaal (A051 KOG). The afternoon will be closed with drinks at…

There is an increasing amount of attention on EU and its Member States contributions to implementation of two landmark agreements: the Paris Climate Agreement and the UN Agenda 2030 with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Absent from the current literature is an analysis of the political effect of…

Most of the vast Tibetan literature was authored by monks. They were Buddhists par excellence, educated in a system in which Indic- and Indian-inspired texts played a pivotal role. What they wrote was primarily religious or philosophical in nature, but also extended to ‘secular’ topics. Through the…

On 5 October, Katherine Filesia defended the thesis 'Speaking the same language: the introduction of the Anglo-American trust into the Dutch legal system'. The doctoral research was supervised by Pim Huijgen and Frans Sonneveldt.

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?

On 7 May 2020, Jolanda van der Vliet defended her thesis 'The International Legal Protection of Environmental Refugees. A human rights-based, security and State responsibility approach'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. N.J. Schrijver and Prof. J.J.C. Voorhoeve.

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.

Starting this academic year (2016-2017) Maartje van der Woude, Professor of Sociology of Law at the Van Vollenhoven Institute will organize the Leiden Socio-Legal Series (LSLS).

On 21 March 2019, James Welch defended his thesis 'The Grotius Sanction: Deus Ex Machina. The legal, ethical, and strategic use of drones in transnational armed conflict and counterterrorism'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. P.B Cliteur.

In pursuit of solutions to China’s inter-regional cross-border insolvency cooperation, my doctoral dissertation provides 10 original recommendations accompanied with comments, which are entitled “China’s Inter-regional Cross-border Insolvency Arrangement” (CICIA).

On 23 June 2020, Santy Kouwagam defended her PhD-thesis 'How lawyers win land conflicts for corporations: Legal Strategy and its influence on the Rule of Law in Indonesia'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. A.W. Bedner and Prof. C.E. von Benda-Beckmann.

Mr. S. Al Daghistani defended his thesis on 30 November 2017

With the rise of information and communication technologies, large amounts of data are being generated and stored in databases. In order to get a better grip on these large amounts of data, serious efforts are being made to discover patterns and relations in the data with the help of new techniques.…

Friday 3 February ILS 2.0 presents: Leiden Socio-Legal Series:“Peering Through the Legal Mobilisation Lens to Analyse the Potential of Legal Advocacy” by Dr. Jeff Handmaker – International Institute for Social Studies, Erasmus University.

In The Hague, the Leiden Centre of Data Science (LCDS) in close collaboration with the Centre for Professional Learning (CPL) is developing a Legal Technologies programme. They do so in cooperation with three faculties of Leiden University, namely the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs (FGGA),…

Study information

On 7 November 2018, Catherine Harwood defended her thesis 'Navigating Between Principle and Pragmatism: The Roles and Functions of Atrocity-Related United Nations Commissions of Inquiry in the International Legal Order'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. L.J. Van den Herik and Prof.…

On 1 April 2023, Rowie Stolk of the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law started a new appointment for 0.7 FTE at Empirical Legal Studies Leiden (ELS@Leiden). ELS provides a platform that brings together legal scholars and social scientists to collaboratively explore legally relevant…

Technological developments are rapidly advancing. The Leiden Legal Technologies Program was on the agenda of the Advisory Committee at their second meeting held on 15 October. The decision to start the program in January 2021 was taken unanimously. It was the official moment to announce the completion…

Abstract submission is now open for the international conference of the ELS Academy, in Amsterdam on September 1 and 2. For the 2022 International ELS Conference, we invite all involved in legal research using qualitative and/or quantitative methods to submit abstracts, that may focus on ongoing or…

Niek Strohmaier and Gitta Veldt will start as assistant professors within the project Empirical Legal Studies (ELS). Their appointments are part of the sector plan of Leiden Law School.

ELS lab member Helen Pluut concluded this year’s lecture series on Empirical Methods in Legal Research. Helen discussed diary studies as an example of multilevel research designs.

Researchers from the Coherent Private Law research program have published an article in The Law Teacher about the state of the art of Empirical Legal Studies education in the Netherlands.

Lecture, Leiden Yemeni Studies Lecture Series

‘Internationale Politiek’ is a specialisation in the BSc programme in Political Sciences. It combines the core political science subjects with the study of international and global processes and institutions. This specialisation is partially taught in Dutch and based in Leiden.

On Friday 5 February 2021 the online conference of the Dutch Platform of Empirical Legal Studies (ELS) took place. This conference served as a platform to bring young, enthusiastic and driven ELS scholars together in a research community and enable them to learn more and discuss about empirical research…

On 12 April 2022 Alok Oak successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

This volume was edited by Jeroen Duindam, Jill Harries, Caroline Humfress, and Nimrod Hurvitz.

PhD defence

PhD defence

Combine the analytical tools of the Political Science discipline with an in-depth study of current politics in the Netherlands.

Ever since the coronavirus crisis began, people have been arguing about the legal justification for measures. The problem: far-reaching measures such as an obligation to wear face masks, get tested, or school closures violate the Constitution. The Cabinet had the difficult task of weighing fundamental…

Op 30 oktober presenteerde de Commissie tot Revisie van het Reglement van Orde, onder voorzitterschap van Kees van der Staaij (SGP), haar bevindingen aan Kamervoorzitter Khadija Arib.

How can data analytics be used as a research method in the field of legal research? This question was addressed during the Research Lab Legal Data Science on 23 September, 2016.