On 30 June, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies of Leiden University (eLaw) will hold the annual Hans Franken Lecture. This year, the lecture will be held by Jan Kleijssen, the recently retired human rights director at the Council of Europe. The title of the lecture is: 'AI and Human Rights'…

In the coming academic year things will hopefully gradually return to normal, so that teaching can again take place as far as possible on campus. Even so, hybrid teaching is here to stay. We talk to Niels van de Ven, former lecturer at Leiden Law School and now Education Manager at the Centre for Innovation…

Darinka Piqani and Moritz Jesse, both from the Europa Institute at Leiden Law School, each gave two lectures as part of the advanced course 'European Constitutionalism' hosted by Professor Helena Hoffmanová of the Department of Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law of Charles University, Prague.

On 24 November 2022, Simone van der Hof delivered the annual Mulock Houwer Lecture. The title of the lecture was ‘Niet om de knikkers maar om het spel – Over de digitale versie van een vergeten kinderrecht’.

Education

Last year he became Teacher of the Year because of his innovative and online teaching, now Alexander van Oudenhoven has to change course again and teach physically. What have the first weeks been like for him? ‘Let's apply what we learned in the lockdown period.’

On Thursday, December 12, 2024, historian and terrorism expert Beatrice de Graaf will deliver the 53rd Huizinga Lecture at the Stadsgehoorzaal in Leiden. Under the title "We Are the Times: History in Times of Crisis", De Graaf will explore how history is used during crises to give meaning to the times.…

On Thursday 11 December 2025, Daan Roovers, the philosopher and former Denker des Vaderlands (Philosopher Laureate), will give the 54th Huizinga Lecture at the Stadsgehoorzaal in Leiden. Under the title What’s at stake: The boundaries of politics and fair play, she will reinterpret Johan Huizinga’s…

The Van Vollenhoven Institute is organising a year-long public lecture series entitled 'Reconsidering the Socio-Legal Gaze'. The lecture series aims to spark critical debates about the visions of justice and positions of power that inform Law and Society scholarship at Leiden and beyond.

On 29 April, doctoral researcher Sophie Vériter will join the annual Ralf Dahrendorf Memorial Lecture at St Antony’s College, Oxford University as a discussant.

On 20 May 2022, eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies of Leiden University organised the Hans Franken lecture for the third time. This year the lecture was delivered by Aleid Wolfsen, chairman of the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (Data Protection Authority (DPA)), the privacy watchdog of the…

Join this lecture from professor Daniel Aldrich at the Spanish Steps in Wijnhaven on Wednesday 3 November. Dr. Sanneke Kuipers, associate professor in Crisis Governance, will be the moderator of the lecture and she and professor Aldrich give us a preview of the event.

Giving an incorrect answer as a student in a packed lecture hall can be nerve-wracking. But with Pharmacology teacher Rob van Wijk, you don’t need to worry about that. ‘He creates a comfortable and safe atmosphere,’ his students say. They have nominated him for the Leiden Science Teacher Award.

On 6 March, this year’s Thorbecke Lecture was held in Leiden. Christoph Van der Elst of the Faculty of Law and Criminology at Ghent University delivered the lecture entitled: ‘The digital economy and the digital organisation’.

On Thursday 29 February, the European Data Protection Supervisor, Wojciech Wiewiórowski, visited the eLaw Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden Law School to give a lecture entitled 'Fundamental rights and/or market surveillance: The current and future role of Data Protection Authorities…

Antoaneta Dimitrova, Professor Comparative Governance, presented the Cleveringa Lecture at the Vaclav Havel Library in Prague last week. We spoke to her about her experience.

On 21 April 2022, Cleveringa Professor Jan Grabowski visited Leiden. The theme of his visit was the role of law and historiography in shaping collective memories.

Education, Facility, ICT

On Thursday 15 January 2026, the Meijers Lecture was held and the Meijers Prizes and Van Wersch Springplank Prize presented. Suzan Stoter, Dean of Leiden Law School and portfolio holder for research, introduced the lecture to a full house.

On Tuesday 8 November, a workshop for lecturers was held on skills that students acquire throughout their studies. The workshop was organised by KU Leuven as part of the Erasmus+ project ASSET-H.

A small group of Students for Palestine demonstrators occupied the Academy Building on Rapenburg in the afternoon of Wednesday 26 November. The Cleveringa Lecture by political scientist Hélène Landemore had to be moved to Leiden Law School’s Kamerlingh Onnes Building.

Twenty-five passionate lecturers earned their Senior Teaching Qualification (SKO) on Monday 12 January. Five of these lecturers talk about how the SKO has benefitted them and what they think ‘good teaching’ is.

In this series the Vice-Dean and portfolio holder of education in the board of the Faculty of Archaeology will reflect on the state of education. Posts can range from shedding light on current national shifts in the university landscape to arguments as to why it’s important to be timely with designing…

Biologist Marcel Schaaf is one of four science faculty members who achieved the Senior Teaching Qualification in Leiden last year. How was that and what drives him? ‘Students receive way too often feedback that they cannot put into practice.’

On Monday 8 April, a high-profile guest visited Leiden Law School. Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Geoffrey van Leeuwen gave a powerful speech to students about defending our interests in all current global developments.

The results of the National Student Survey (NSE) are now available. In 2024, students from the Faculty of Humanities were satisfied across the board. The expertise of lecturers was rated particularly positively.

Students stream into the lecture hall, handing in their mobile phones at the door. Once everyone’s seated, silence descends and all eyes turn to the large screen at the front of the lecture hall. A live connection has been set up with the prison where Marco is a long-term inmate. Today, the students…

On 1 June 2022, Maarten Kunst, Professor of Criminology at Leiden Law School, gave a lecture on his research into the effects of the right to be heard on both the defendant and the victim. Victims have certain rights in the Dutch criminal process, including the right to be heard in criminal proceedings.…

Molecular Science & Technology student Renske Donkers has won the second edition of the Young Star Award. During the ceremony on Wednesday 17 February, no less than three teachers were awarded the title 'Teacher of the Year'. Finally, students had a surprise in store for all teachers: with a video they…

On April 14, 2025, Dr. Hans Petschar, the recently-retired Director of the Bildarchiv und Grafiksammlung at the Austrian National Library in Vienna, delivered the Sixth Annual Austrian Studies Lecture 'Austria’s Present Past: A visual journey through Austrian history 1925 – 2025'.

Three lecturers from Leiden University have been awarded a 100,000-euro Comenius Teaching Fellowship within the scope of the Senior Fellows programme. The grant will enable them and their project teams to carry out their own teaching innovation project.

Doctoral Grant for lecturer to research witness protection at the international courts.

Lecture, Tuesday Talk

Lecture, Tuesday Talk

Veel mensen denken dat zware metalen giftig zijn en mens en natuur altijd schade aanbrengen. Dat beeld moet genuanceerd worden, vindt hoogleraar Sylvestre Bonnet.

Much of the work of Serge Fehr, Professor of Quantum Information Theory, is abstract and theoretical and comprehensible to very few people. But his work helps make the digital world safer so that in future our internet banking will still be problem free, for instance. He will explain more in his inaugural…

Starting 1 October 2022, Mirjam Sombroek-van Doorn has been appointed as Professor Law and Health.

Legal protection in education is something of a neglected child: oddly split between administrative law and civil courts. Brechtje Paijmans is calling attention to this issue as Professor by Special Appointment of Conflict Resolution and Legal Protection in Education.

There were no bitcoins or artificial intelligence when our civil code was compiled. This could cause problems.

Gert Oostindie, Emeritus Professor of Colonial and Postcolonial History, is this year’s Cleveringa Professor at Leiden University. He was appointed by the University on 4 October. In his inaugural lecture on 24 November, entitled Courage and Disregard, he will talk about (academic) freedom in relation…

Dominique Moïsi, a professor at King’s College London, will be the first holder of the Owada chair. ‘In the present international context of polarisation and divisions within societies and amongst nations, any effort at bringing Asia and Europe closer to each other is truly important.’

On 16 May 2022, Professor Michel Wouters from the Department of Biomedical Data Sciences at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), will deliver his inaugural lecture titled ‘Quality of Cancer Care: why the real world matters’. Wouters will use the opportunity to describe how quality registries…

Hoogleraar Radicalisation Studies Tahir Abbas wil mensen er bewust van maken dat radicalisering voortkomt uit hoe wij als mensen samenleven

Should criminal law have a greater role in protecting this democracy? In his inaugural lecture, Professor Jeroen ten Voorde urges caution.