From 25 December till 3 January, all University buildings will be closed. The University Library and a number of faculty libraries will have limited opening hours.

In this video, Natalia Grincheva introduces the topics discussed in the journal's latest Special Issue.

The scientific world is under increasing pressure from all directions: the money that society invests has to show clear returns. ‘The best thing we can do is to go along with this development,' says Ivo de Nooijer, Director of Luris, Leiden University's valorisation institute.

Dr Brian McGarry, Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, addressed the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the world's first advisory proceedings concerning climate change. His advocacy for the Commission of Small Island States…

The German state of Saxony-Anhalt is set to make recognition of the state of Israel a requirement for becoming a German citizen. However, Peter Rodrigues, Emeritus Professor of Immigration Law, has told Dutch daily newspaper Nederlands Dagblad that introducing a similar measure in the Netherlands would…

The Council of State in the Netherlands has drawn up a programme of reflection to evaluate the role of the highest administrative court in the child benefits scandal and to learn lessons for the future.

From 26-30 June 2017 the first edition of the summer course on the Europeanisation of administrative law in the EU Member States took place in The Hague.

The Netherlands returned 478 artefacts to Indonesia and Sri Lanka this week, on the advice of a Dutch committee. Rightly so, says Leiden professor Pieter ter Keurs from the Museums, Collections and Society interdisciplinary research programme. ‘But do make it clear why you are returning something.’

Linde Desmaele explores the role of US theatre nuclear weapons stationed in Europe. Moving beyond the deterrence vs. reassurance debate

How and to what extent does AI affect citizen representation in public service delivery and state-citizen interactions?

How are law and governance in China responding to rapidly changing circumstances, and what does that mean for the relationship between the state and its citizens?

Large areas of space are filled by molecular clouds that consist of gas and dust grains that are the remnants of dead stars. When these clouds start collapsing, the decreasing temperature and increasing density cause gas particles to start accreting onto dust grain surfaces.

From receiving our salary to doing our shopping: we are completely dependent on commercial banks for all our payment transactions. But what happens if they collapse? In his inaugural lecture, Professor Bart Joosen calls for a rigorous change: ‘Put payment transactions for private clients under one…

Vice-rector Organisatieontwikkeling en oud-decaan FGGA Erwin Muller start op 1 april 2026 als staatsraad bij de Afdeling Advisering van de Raad van State.

The university has been shaping the city of Leiden for 450 years. A brief history of the university buildings that have helped define the city.

Daniel Peat will represent the ISDS Academic Forum, a group of over 150 academics whose research focusses on investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), at forthcoming discussions on the reform of the ISDS system taking place in New York.

On Thursday 24 May 2018, Tanja Masson-Zwaan of Leiden University’s International Institute of Air and Space Law and Prof Mahulena Hofmann of the University of Luxembourg had the honour of addressing the King and Queen of the Netherlands and the Grand-Duc and Grand-Duchess of Luxembourg during the State…

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.

How can computers help design optimal buildings? PhD student Koen van der Blom makes algorithms that take into account all kinds of different architectural requirements, in order to reach the best compromise. And that is quite difficult: 'Algorithms do not automatically understand that a building that…

SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research is moving. The headquarters of the institute will relocate to the Science Campus of Leiden University. In October 2019, the first pile was officially put into the ground; in 2021, the building will be ready for use. A first glimpse at the building that will…

This article studies the securitization of immigration in the United States of America (U.S.), through the analysis of the National Security Strategies (NSS) published between 2002 and 2017, using a two-layered analytical framework that combines securitization theory and agenda setting theory.

Today’s protest at the University’s Academy Building and the Hortus botanicus ended at around 16.30. The dozens of demonstrators left the grounds voluntarily after the university summoned them to leave.

In her book Rap 73, Dorrit van Dalen shares intimate anecdotes and what for many are previously unknown stories about the Academy Building and its users. Stories such as who held heated debates in the beautiful vaulted Gewelfkamer, and why the singer of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot was given pride…

Just a stone’s throw from Binnenhof, the heart of Dutch politics, Spui Campus will open its doors in early 2026. Join us for a sneak preview.

What is the impact of Indonesia’s democratization process on everyday state-citizen relations?

Leiden has one of the most petrified inner-cities of The Netherlands. This is not beneficial for the biodiversity crisis and Leiden University, with a significant number of buildings within the Singels. The priority should be to make a positive impact on the matter.

On 3 March 2024, the Swiss electorate decided in a sensational referendum in favour of an increase in the state old-age pension.

The KNMI has issued a code red weather warning because of slippery conditions. This applies from 03.00 on Monday 15 February. All university buildings, both in Leiden and The Hague, will therefore remain closed until at least 12.00. Update: the buildings will reopen after 12.00.

Bringing together scholars from Russia, the United States and Europe, this collection of essays is the first to explore the slippery phenomenon of post-Soviet nostalgia by studying it as a discursive practice serving a wide variety of ideological agendas.

The lecture series

De asielplannen van minster Faber leveren de nodige commotie op binnen politiek Den Haag. Wilders wil geen enkele concessies doen en dreigt met verkiezingen. De Raad van State oordeelt nl. negatief op de wetsvoorstellen. Wim Voermans, zegt in Nieuwsuur dat ‘de plannen juridisch net binnen de lijntjes…

How can the emergence of primary justice systems be facilitated and furthered?

On Tuesday 22 January 2019, Beryl ter Haar participated in a comparative law lecture featuring labour law cases of the constitutional court of South Africa at the Kutafin State Law University Moscow, Russia. Topics discussed included short term employment contracts, the right to strike and the right…

How to deal with the Pyongyang regime? Is North Korea irrational? Prof. Remco Breuker proposes a new approach.

22 November 2018.

On the 28th of January 2019 Beryl ter Haar gave a guest lecture at Tbilisi State University organised by the European Law School Association (ELSA). The lecture addressed issues of EU fundamental rights, more particularly it was on the freedom to conduct a business versus several labour rights, among…

On Monday 25 September, Marion Collewet, Matthew di Giuseppe, Jarek Kantorowicz, and Hendrik Vrijburg presented their reseach on 'Building Northern Public Support to Finance Climate Policies in the Global South' during a GTGC lunch seminar.

How did dynastic organization – that it, the employment of non-ruling family members and the development of dynastic traditions and concepts – influence state formation in both Catholic Europe and Muslim West-Asia?

How should we address our colonial heritage? And how digital and accessible are our collections? Outgoing State Secretary Fleur Gräper spoke with researchers and heritage specialists about this on 25 January.

Researchers at FOM-institute AMOLF and the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION) have developed a rubber rod with strange bending behaviours. Beyond a certain point, it bends more under decreasing pressure. This behaviour doesn’t fit our expectations and does not conform to secular laws that predict the…

Eliminate violence against women. That is the message of the Orange the World campaign. Leiden University is joining in this year, hence the ‘oranged’ Academy Building and Oude UB.

Gigantic photos of 25 Leideners who have meant a lot for the city and the world have recently been hung on the Achmea building by Leiden Centraal station. These include several Leiden researchers.

Researchers from the Leiden Institute of Chemistry show proof of principle that live-cell structural changes and metabolic processes can be followed in real time with NMR spectroscopy. They performed their study on photosynthetic green algae that are metabolically flexible and can sustain energy generation…

Seven large reproductions of works by Rembrandt on seven Leiden University buildings reveal the relationship between the painter and the University. Rembrandt van Rijn enrolled in the University in 1620 and painted the portraits of various alumni of the University. In addition, the University Library…

Esteban Szmulewic , PhD candidate at the Constitutional and Administrative Law Department has written a paper on the comparison between Italy and the Netherlands, covering the first part of the pandemic (2020 and early 2021). The article has been published in the prestigious 'Journal Diritto Publico…

On Thursday 28 January 2016, Prof. Carsten Stahn contributed to the OPCW Sub-Working Group on Non-State Actors, together with Professors Andrew Clapham (Geneva) and Dapo Akande (Oxford), in the presence of the Ahmet Üzümcü, Director-General of the OPCW.

On 30 January, GTGC hosted a special event together with the Embassy of Ireland. As part of his visit to the Netherlands, John Concannon, Director General of the Global Ireland Unit of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, came to the university to engage in a discussion about Ireland's role in international…

The Netherlands will comply with the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Netanyahu and proceed to arrest him as soon as he enters Dutch territory. Jens Iverson,Assistant Professor of Public International Law, discusses the issue in Dutch daily newspaper ‘Trouw’.