In the programme International Criminal Law, you will gain understanding of the systemic environment surrounding international criminal law. Read more

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How safe do you feel when you’re walking around the streets of Leiden? Do you generally feel safe? Are there any situations when you feel unsafe in the city? These are the kinds of questions that Leiden’s City Criminologist Marianne Franken – from Leiden University – hopes to be able to answer. In collaboration…

Did early farmers deliberately use animal manure on their fields?

What does it mean to do public policy ethics today? How should philosophers engage with ethical issues in policy-making when policy decisions are circumscribed by political and pragmatic concerns? How do ethical issues in public policy differ between areas such as foreign policy, criminal justice, or…

The goal of the LIACS Media Lab (LML) at Leiden University is to conduct state-of-the-art research in the areas of deep learning, artificial intelligence and computer vision.

On Thursday 8 December, Fred van Haasteren has defended his doctoral thesis ‘Fatsoenlijke flexibiliteit – De invloed van ILO-conventie 181 en de regelgeving omtrent uitzendarbeid’ (Decent flexibility - The influence of ILO Convention 181 and legislation on temporary agency work) at the Academy Building…

How did ancient Greeks and Romans regard work?

An algorithm is discussed to compute the exponential representation of principal units in a finite extension field F of the p-adic rationals.

An environmental and palaeo-economic reconstruction.

A warm welcome to the Graduate School of FGGA at Leiden University.

Humans share meaning through language. Over time, repeated interactions have shaped languages into forms that match our cognitive preferences, making them structured, expressive, easy to learn, and ultimately, meaningful.

The archaeology domain produces large amounts of texts, too much to effectively read or manually search through for research. To alleviate this problem, we created a search system (called AGNES), which combines full text search with entity and geographical search.

Contact the Leiden University Institute for History.

In this thesis, we have studied cell images from two types of cells, including pollen grains and the immune cells, neutrophils. These images are captured using a bright field microscope and a confocal microscope.

The Latin language is a descendant of the widespread Indo-European family of languages. Recent ancient genetic studies have helped shed light on the likelihood that the Indo-European languages spread into a Europe that had already been populated by farmers for thousands of years.

A study on the development of prosocial behaviour.

The second and final report on the Netherlands‘ crime-terror nexus has analysed all fourteen profiles of individuals arrested in 2015 for offences of terrorism.

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The Writing Lab helps students to become better academic writers. Our tutors offer support during any stage of the writing process, whether you’ve only just started and need help with planning, incorporating sources and/or making an outline, or whether you’re already writing a text and want to improve…

What makes a good historian? When historians raise this question, as they have done for centuries, they often do so to highlight that certain personal attitudes or dispositions are indispensable or studying the past. Yet their vieuws on what virtues, skills or competencies historians need most differ…

It might seem far away, but the end of your studies is often sooner than you think. Luckily, the International Relations and Organisations (IRO) specialisation provides the ideal basis for continued academic education and a professional career.

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The Just Peace Dialogues were a set of meetings for public deliberation of key aspects of building peace in today’s world. The dialogues were held across seven days at the heart of the Just Peace Festival (16 - 22 June 2025).

In the large gas clouds between the stars, chemical reactions take place under extreme conditions, giving rise to both small molecules, such as water and common salt, as well as large complex molecules that can serve as the building blocks of life. This is known as astrochemistry and it is something…

People are less willing to give up an interest when in a negotiation situation than when they can do it of their own free will, as Leiden University psychologist Eric van Dijk discovered. Knowledge of this kind can be used by policy makers, for instance, to motivate people to adopt certain desirable…

The relationship between States and foreign corporations are regulated by international economic law and international investment law in particular. Any disputes between States and foreign corporations must therefore also be solved by reference to this body of public international law, for example when…

Thanks to data science, we can chart and search enormous quantities of related information. This generates all kinds of new insights, for example in complex global financial structures or such societal problems as loneliness.

The transition from fossil fuels and the practical changes that this entails make many demands on citizens. Emma ter Mors, a psychologist and lecturer at Leiden University, is researching the factors that contribute to public perception and acceptance of new energy technologies.

Plants could be regarded as small chemical factories, which produce chemical substances via photosynthesis. If we can imitate photosynthesis in an artificial system, we can make clean fuels and materials out of sunlight and CO2. Huub de Groot is very close to designing a system of this kind.

This unique, interdisciplinary Master focuses on the interaction and gaps between the “law on the books” and the “law in action.” It combines theories and methods from both law and the social sciences to the practical operation of law. The core curriculum equips students with the conceptual approaches…

From spiders in the bathroom to mice in the kitchen, we share our homes with far more species than we realise (whether we like it or not). Researchers at Leiden University and the University of Helsinki are collecting stories about how people live alongside these non-human housemates.

Biodiversity is under pressure worldwide, but is essential for our health, food security and well-being. What is the influence of human actions on ecosystems? Can we provide biodiversity-inclusive solutions for our key societal challenges? These questions are central to the Biodiversity research the…

The role of material culture in early colonial encounters in the Caribbean

If researchers make their data FAIR, computers can link large quantities of data and identify patterns, thus greatly accelerating the process of arriving at new insights. In Leiden, the birthplace of ‘FAIR data’, Professor Barend Mons explains the meaning of this term.

Knowledge generated by development-led archaeology about the Late Neolithic, the Early Bronze Age and the start of the Middle Bronze Age (2850 - 1500 cal BC) in the Netherlands

Biodiversity in the Netherlands is having a tough time. Professor of Natural Capital Koos Biesmeijer combines research with practical advice: from the greening of industrial parks to solutions inspired by hi-tech nature. Inaugural lecture 9 March.

How can we make the information in handwritten historical research reports accessible and searchable? Data scientists at Leiden University are working with other universities on a method that will improve access to cultural heritage.

Parasitic worms and stomach bacteria suppress immune reactions such as allergic responses. Parasitologist Hermelijn Smits and lung specialist Christian Taube from the LUMC are trying to learn from these micro-organisms.

Johannes Boer's research intends to question the way explicit knowledge is applied in order to restore and perform music from the past with the intention to get as close as possible to its original meaning.

Smart algorithms and powerful processors are just as essential for astronomy as big telescopes. Astronomers at Leiden University therefore constantly operate at the interface between astronomy and data science.

Multinationals use loopholes in the tax treaties between different states. A possible solution would be to eliminate all these loopholes in one go by creating a central global treaty. Leiden researchers are investigating whether this kind of mega-treaty is feasible.

The earth has more than 7 billion inhabitants, all of whom leave behind traces of pollution. However, not all forms of pollution have the same harmful effect. Leiden scientists help determine where we should put our priorities.

This handbook provides a resource for those already familiar with some kinds of micro-particles who wish to learn more about others, or for those just starting out in the study of microremains who wish to have a broad understanding about microscopic archaeology.

Plastics have become an integral part of modern society due to their versatility and durability.

This book explores how physicists, astronomers, chemists, and historians in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries employed ‘epistemic virtues’ such as accuracy, objectivity, and intellectual courage. In doing so, it takes the first step in providing an integrated history of the sciences…

The main aim of this dissertation was to provide insight into possible subtle forms of bias in youth socialization by various socializing agents in the Netherlands, and exploring new ways to document bias. Additionally, it addresses the importance of using sound statistical methods for calculating effect…