Constitutional and administrative law covers a broad area of law. It provides the rules with which issues in society can be solved by government authorities.

Constitutional and administrative law is a specialisation of the master’s programme Rechtsgeleerdheid (Law) at the renowned Leiden Law School of Leiden University. This programme looks closely at the interaction between national and European law.

Applications can be submitted by doctoral researchers (at least in the second year of their studies during the proppsed stay), postdocotral researchers, and senior researchers. The research should thematically align with one of the research themes or projects conducted by the academic staf of the Department…

On Thursday 13 October 2022, the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law bid farewell to Elly van der Tang-van Loenen, for years the department's mentor for master’s students. Having enjoyed this position for many years, Elly is now retiring.

Femke Binnendijk and Olaf van Loon have been appointed as lecturers at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden Law School.

Roel Becker and Jelle But recently joined the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law as PhD candidates.

The first 'Tafel van Thorbecke' took place at Leiden University on Thursday 17 November 2022. For this new lecture series, initiated by Fatma Çapkurt and Gert Jan Geertjes, external scholars will be invited to speak about their research in the field of constitutional and administrative law.

The Global Summit on Constitutionalism took place from 16 to 18 March. Wim Voermans, Gert Jan Geertjes and Rowie Stolk, from the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, travelled to Austin where the conference was organised by the School of Law of the University of Texas at Austin.

Professor Versteeg is currently Professor of Law at Virginia School of Law in the United States, where she has been working since 2011 as Miller Center Director and Human Rights Program Director at the Center for Comparative and International Law University of the Virginia School of Law.

Managing scarcity to serve the public interest is a classic government task. An important way to execute this task is by allocating individual rights that are only available in limited quantities, such as CO2 emission allowances, gambling licences, subsidies, radio frequencies, public contracts and…

Today, 189 out of 193 officially recognised nation-states have a written constitution, and 75% of these have been ratified since 1975. How did this worldwide diffusion of constitutions come about?

By tradition, the moot court competition of the 'Vereniging voor Bestuursrecht' (VAR, Dutch Administrative Law Association) takes place in May every year. This year, it was the honour of Leiden University to organise the event.

On Thursday 9 november, Reijer Passchier defended his dissertation 'Informal constitutional change'. His supervisor is Professor Wim Voermans.

The Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law of Leiden University has published a collection of research essays on the separation of powers. This collection addresses the main question of whether the historically developed combination of concepts of democratic legitimacy and the separation…

On Wednesday 13 December 2017 Jaap Wieland defended his doctoral thesis entitled ‘De bescherming van concurrentiebelangen in het bestuursrecht’ (the Protection of Competition Interests in Administrative Law).

Annemarie Drahmann and Gert Jan Geertjes contribute to the Matra Rule of Law Training Programme of the Netherlands Helsinki Committee.

Sofia Ranchordas (1985) has been appointed Chair European and Comparative Public Law and Rosalind Franklin Fellow at the University of Groningen. She will start this position on October 1st.

Recently, Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, and Jaroslaw Kantorowicz, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs and a research associate at the Department of Economics, were awarded a grant from the KNAW Statesman Thorbecke Fund. This grant will…

On 22 April the 5th edition of the book Introduction to Dutch Law (edited by Jeroen Chorus, Ewoud Hondius and Wim Voermans) was presented to dr. Geert Corstens, former president of the Dutch Supreme Court.

The institute that focuses on Public Law is as broad as the field itself. The Institute of Public Law has six departments, each with its own research agenda.

Szmulewicz, a PhD candidate at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden University, gave two online presentations on ‘The unitary and decentralized state’ and ‘The need to strengthen the autonomy of the territories in the new Constitution in order to reduce regional inequalities’…

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.

On 21 March, the Rode Hoed in Amsterdam hosted a debate evening on the data ‘hunger’ of the distrustful government, partly in response to publications by Dutch newspaper NRC on the undercover investigation into mosque attendance at the behest of the NCTV (National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and…

Ymre Schuurmans, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, has been appointed Chair of the Dutch Legal Aid Board’s Advisory Council following permission from the Dutch Minister for Legal Protection.

At the annual conference of the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Wetgeving (the Dutch association for legislation) that was held in the Auditorium of the Ministries of Internal Affairs and Kingdom Relations and Justice and Security in The Hague on Thursday 6 October, Gert Jan Geertjens defended the draft…

Esteban Szmulewicz, a PhD candidate at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, spoke at the annual Salzburg Global Weekend, organised by the Salzburg Global Seminar with the theme 'Democracy on the Front Lines'. Key speakers included Nobel Peace Laureate the Ukrainian Civil Rights defender…

On 18 January, Esteban Szmulewicz, a PhD candidate at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, spoke on the following theme at an online seminar: 'Comments on the International IDEA report: the state of democracy in the world and the Americas in 2023. New checks and balances'.

As part of his PhD trajectory, Esteban Szmulewicz was invited to give a presentation at a seminar titled 'Challenges of representative and participatory constitution-making: insights from the recent Chilean processes'. The seminar was attended by colleagues affiliated with the Warsaw institution as…

Szmulewicz, a PhD candidate at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, has written an article on intergovernmental relations (IGR) from a multidisciplinary perspective, considering law in the text and law-in-action, while analysing paradigmatic cases as well as comparative perspecti…

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…

Louis Honée, a student assistant for the Thorbecke chair and the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, is one of the new European Universities Debating Champions. Together with his team partner, he beat around 150 teams in the English as a Second Language category.

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…

The Salzburg Global Seminar is an independent non-profit organisation founded in 1947 with a mission to challenge current and future leaders to shape a better world. It has had multiple programmes over time. Esteban Szmuleiwicz participated as a Fellow on the programme titled Health and Economic Well-being:…

Today, the Dutch Advisory Board on public access and government information (ACOI) issued its opinion on how the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) makes documents on Covid policy accessible to the public.

On 1 September, the conference of the Kirchheiner Chair ‘Government and citizens: A matter of trust’ took place. In a packed hall in the beautiful Old Observatory of Leiden University, under the inspiring leadership of Willemien den Ouden, a debate was held on the role of the Dutch National Ombudsman,…

On 29 and 30 June, Ingrid Leijten participated in an international workshop held at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISJ) in Oñati, Spain.

On Thursday 29 August 2024, Leiden University hosted the conference on theme of ‘The Ombudsman & the Rule of Law’. More than 100 participants from professional practice and academia attended the conference, which was organised by Professor Luc Verhey and Fatma Çapkurt from the Department of Constitutional…

On 4 and 5 September, Leiden Law School hosted a special conference that brought together around sixty participants from the Netherlands and abroad to discuss the future of economic, social, and cultural rights – rights that touch upon everyone’s daily life: housing, education, healthcare, food, and…

On 5 June 2018 Emile Beenakker defended her doctoral thesis ‘The implementation of international law in the national legal order: A legislative perspective’. The doctoral research was supervised by Professor W.J.M. Voermans.

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.

Geert Wilders’ PVV Party believes that Islam is a totalitarian ideology and not a religion, and thus Muslims are not equally entitled to the same freedom of religion or belief as other believers. This view is incompatible with liberal democracy, according to Hans-Martien ten Napel.

Demissionair minister Weel rest nog maar één maand de tijd om een nieuw Asielnoodmaatregelenwet te leveren, waarin illegaal verblijf strafbaar wordt gesteld. Geerten Boogaard, hoogleraar staats- en bestuursrecht, schat in dat dit niet lukt, zegt hij in Trouw

It was already clear that the Dutch tax office had been working with black lists for years, containing the names of people who, according to the authorities, had a high risk of committing fraud. But reports by research agency PwC make it clear how systematically the Dutch tax office discriminated when…

The Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law is active in many areas.