In countries with complex domestic situations, citizens have little opportunity to exercise influence on governance and policy. Leiden academics research these situations and share their insights with the public, such as in Nigeria for instance. This enables the people and their communities to improve…

The minors offered by the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs in The Hague are closely linked to the defining image of The Hague as a city of international justice, peace and security as well as the centre of Dutch public administration and international governance.

Read more about our staff here.

Over the past century, the world population has grown exponentially, as has our need for energy and raw materials. If we wish to continue to live prosperously in the future, we have to radically restructure our economy and consumption. Scientific research shows us how to do this.

The one-year master's in History, Arts and Culture, a specialisation of Leiden University’s MA in Asian Studies, allows you to focus on one or more countries or regions of pre-modern, modern or contemporary Asia.

Home to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, The Hague is the perfect backdrop to explore conceptions of justice in our global society. Questions of human rights, peace, security and the environment present legal and policy challenges for governmental and non-governmental…

LUC's Liberal Arts and Sciences programme offers you the opportunity to specialise in one of six Majors while keeping the Global Challenges at the centre of your studies.

With European Politics and Society you will be at the forefront of a new approach to understanding how the fields of European politics, contemporary history, culture, economy, international relations and policy making are linked.

Although the world has made tremendous progress in health, education, sanitation and hygiene, global public health challenges still exist. Disparities in health exist between and within nations as evidenced by inequalities in disease burden, mortality, nutrition and environmental well-being. How does…

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…

The March ILS lunch seminar will take on a slightly different format, as we have the honour of receiving Prof. Vassilis Hatzopoulos who will present his new book on the Collaborative Economy and EU Law.

On 26 June, Dr Vicky Kosta and Dr Olga Ceran visited the University of Bologna, Italy, to present the Vidi research project ‘The EU fundamental right to

In anticipation of future legal reforms on gender-based violence in the Republic of Moldova, Dr Carlotta Rigotti was invited by the United Nations Population Fund to participate in a roundtable discussion on legislative and policy approaches to online and technology-facilitated violence.

On 31 January 2024, Alex Schilin defended his dissertation ‘United in Distinctiveness: The Institutionalisation of Differentiated Integration in Economic and Monetary Union during the Sovereign Debt Crisis.’ What motivated him to research this specific topic, and how did he tackle this project? And…

Your local city park may be improving your health, according to a new paper led by Leiden environmental scientist Roy Remme. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Remme and his colleagues describe how access to nature increases people’s physical activity—and therefore overall health—in…

The price of products and services plays an enormous role in society, and therefore also in the legal domain, according to Professor of Business Studies. Inaugural lecture 2 June.

On Wednesday 27 September a new book by Prof. Luuk van Middelaar will appear, entitled The new politics of Europe. Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s first vice-president, presents the book that evening during a symposium around the same theme.

What is life like as an academic? Twelve PhD candidates will report on their daily work in videos and blogs on the Faces of Science website (in Dutch). They include three researchers from Leiden who are researching topics such as North Korean support for African liberation movements, how differently…

Towards the graduation ceremonies, you sense an increasing nervousness. Not only because all the tradition and glamour surrounding the event, also because that will be the day that the winner of the Political Science master’s thesis award will be announced. For 2022-2023, the jury is considering seven…

Japanese animated films are often fantastic to watch. What's less known is that anime often has a political message. Mari Nakamura researched this phenomenon. PhD defence 14 March.

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

Joop van Holsteyn, Professor in Political Behaviour and Research Methods (Leiden University Institute of Political Science), joins the Dutch Electoral Council.

A ‘new governance culture’ – a hot topic for a number of years now. What kind of culture of public administration do we have in the Netherlands and how do you change it? This question is the focus of the podcast Het Spel & De Macht (the Game & the Power). Each episode considers one theme related to…

The student loan system, implemented in 2015 in part to improve the quality of Dutch education, is facing political backlash. Despite having signed the student loan system agreement in 2015, both GroenLinks and PvdA have had a change of heart.

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

Social scientists from Leiden University have worked with an international team to create teaching modules on migration.

A symposium with a festive touch was organised at Leiden University on 20 March to mark the 50-year anniversary of the marriage of Princess Margriet and Pieter van Vollenhoven. The theme of the symposium was 'Catastrophes and the Law', a theme, the royal Princess and Prince were quick to reassure the…

The Schoof cabinet has several plans that are just not legally feasible. Yet they are often still forced through, knowing, or even hoping, that the courts will intervene. This is dangerous policy that in the long run even undermines trust in politics, the judiciary, and the law itself, argues Armin…

The Pension Funds Dispute Authority (GIP) was founded on 1 January 2024. Albert van Marwijk Kooy has been appointed Chair of the Dispute Resolution Committee, which forms part of the GIP.

The benefits department of the Dutch Tax Administration has attempted to reach backroom agreements with the judiciary about the decision period in benefits cases. Lecturer in tax law Martijn Nouwen says this harms the legal protection of victims.

Voorafgaand aan de begrotingsonderhandelingen riep Marjolein Faber, Minister van Asiel en Migratie, officieel een asielcrisis uit. Is daarmee mogelijke wetgeving op komst? En gaat Brussel daarmee akkoord? Mark Klaassen, universitair docent bij het Europa Instituut, hierover aan het woord in Metro.

On Tuesday 2 March, Jorrit Rijpma spoke at the Standing Committee on European Affairs of the Dutch Senate about the European Migration and Asylum Pact.

The Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA) will organize its 11th annual conference from Thursday 30 June to July 2 2016 at Leiden University.

The International Space University is proud to announce that the 31st annual Space Studies Program (SSP) session will convene in the Netherlands during the summer of 2018.

Mariana Gkliati presented on Tuesday 2 June at the 4rth Annual Conference of the Refugee Law Initiative organised at the University of London. The title of the conference was Rethinking the ‘Regional’ in Refugee Law and Policy.

When politicians claim they can make major differences with their migration policies, they’re raising false expectations. The opportunities for the government to restrict migration are in fact very limited. And what about the little room they do have? Mark Klaassen’s advice is to make use of those opportunities…

Finland reduced its suicide rate from 30 deaths per 100,000 citizens. Marieke Liem and Leah Prencipe discuss this in The Conversation.

NASA is offering to buy lunar samples collected by companies for a token sum primarily to set a precedent for space resource rights on the moon. However, there is not international consensus on the U.S. position on the rights to extracted resources.

According to a recent court ruling, the reception of asylum applicants in the Netherlands is not in line with European requirements. The Dutch Government must take measures to amend the situation. What are the problems concerning the reception of asylum applicants and how realistic are the court’s d…

Dr. Moritz Jesse, associate professor of European Union Law at the Europa Institute Leiden, addressed the members and audience of the panel “Citizenship and the Refugee Crisis” at the World Conference of the Association for the Study of Nationalities in New York, which took place at Columbia University,…

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.…

Lecture, European Union Seminar

On 17 October, a representative from the ERC Safe & Sound project attended the first edition of WE ROBOT Europe in Berlin. At the conference, speakers and participants from the academic world, policy bodies and industry shared and discussed their thoughts on robotics regulation in the EU and the US.…

Lecture, Applied African Linguistics

The international conference “Legal Reform in Indonesia: towards Justice” will be held on 6-7 September 2017 at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

If you follow the western media, you are likely to think of ‘Africa’ as the continent of origin of desperate migrants, a continent of hunger and disease and a breeding ground for international terrorism. But if you want to see the bigger picture, you should look no further than the African Studies scholars…

Expats in the Netherlands receive a much warmer reception than other migrants, Leiden University's Aniek Smit has discovered. ‘But municipalities need to pay more attention to the differences between expats and the effects of their presence on other residents.' PhD defence 25 January.