As both old and new democracies experience increasing democratic backsliding, there is a critical societal need to rethink the design and effectiveness of democratic checks and balances. In this conference on Friday 9 June, the aim is to explore multidisciplinary insights about what makes the checks…

How is law shaped by and shaping social, political and economic change in Indonesia?

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…

Study information, Student for a Day

Techreuzen strijken de winst op en gemeenten en de overheid zitten met maatschappelijke en financiële lasten. In Binnenlands Bestuur, luidt Reijer Passchier, hoogleraar Digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat aan de OU en universitair docent Staatsrecht de noodklok over deze disbalans.

The democratic rule of law is under pressure due to a series of scandals and integrity issues, as seen in the recent parliamentary inquiries. Professor Ronald Kroeze explains: 'Public office holders are expected to show complete dedication, but that norm is quite absolute, and what we mean by it is…

Legal proceedings conducted on behalf of apes and animals who are starved for the purpose of an ecological project. What position do animals actually have in the rule of law? And what changes need to be made? PhD candidate Janneke Vink defends her dissertation on 10 October.

How did parties as political organizations emerge?

Check the structure of the MSc Democracy and Representation at Leiden University: core and elective seminars, thesis or internship, semester format, and internship research integration.

On July 8 and 9, 2022, Leiden University hosted the second conference of the research group on Institutions for Conflict Resolution, in collaboration with Radboud University Nijmegen and Utrecht University.

In order to solve problems such as the refugee crisis, countries must work together at international level. This requires big changes in the way in which states make and implement policy. Leiden researchers analyse these changes and advise policymakers on best practices.

Politics is about the authorised allocation of values: who gets what, when and how much? This question is relevant at many different levels, in many different places and in very different ways.

This research project is supported by an NWO Aspasia grant, DeepDish TV, crowd-sourced funding, and the Democracy and Media Foundation.

The Team International Relations and European Studies addresses the interconnections and interdependence of contemporary global political, economic, security and culture from a multidisciplinary perspective rooted in the humanities. More specifically it is concerned with the study of international relations…

In this article, Thomas Maguire, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, examines why states use intelligence to influence external audiences.

On 27 June 2017, Daniel Dimov defended his PhD dissertation “Crowdsourced Online Dispute Resolution”. The supervisors are Professor H.J. van den Herik and Professor A.R. Lodder.

A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe is a synthetic work, authored by an international team of researchers, covering twenty national cultures and 250 years. It goes beyond the conventional nation-centered narratives and presents a novel vision especially sensitive to the cross-cultural…

On 9 April 2020, Mohamed Azizi defended his thesis 'Reflecties op Wereldburgerschap: In de spiegel van Afghanistan en Nederland'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. P.B. Cliteur en Prof. W. Veugelers (Universiteit voor Humanistiek).

The Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society (VVI) is part of the Leiden Law School.

Recently Cambridge University Press published dr. Jan Osters monograph “Media Freedom as a Fundamental Right”.

From Crisis to Critique

In this article, Tom Buitelaar proposes a systematic framework for analyzing the impact of individual characteristics of peacekeeping leaders on the behaviour of field-level personnel in UN peacekeeping operations.

To meet the rising demand for minerals driven by the global shift to clean energy technologies, ensuring responsible and resilient supply chains is critical. Minerals like cobalt, lithium, and nickel for batteries, neodymium and zinc for wind turbines, and indium for solar panels are essential.

Terrorism destabilizes governments, undermines civil society, threatens social and economic development, endangers democracy, and directly impacts human rights. The extraordinary events on 9/11 turned counterterrorism into a global governance project. The global collaboration is unprecedented with traditional…

Sarah Giest and Annemarie Samuels, both Assistant Professors at Leiden University, researched the quality and coverage of the data being collected for policiymakers to be used, specifically pertaining to minority groups.

On a referendum held on May 21, 2006, 55.5% of voters in Montenegro voted in favor of their country’s independence. While in numerical terms the outcome shows overwhelming support for independent Montenegro, from a normative standpoint it was a narrow win. The normative framework that regulated rules…

How can party bans be justified? Which parties were banned in post-war Europe – and why? Do militant democracy instruments work? Is an international militant democracy concept in the making?

Bahar Şimşek defended her thesis on 4 May 2021.

An analysis of people’s access to justice and the working of (legal) institutions in post-conflict, democratic Libya

On Tuesday 14 January 2025 Milan Ismangil successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

The E.M. Meijers Book Series is the book series published by the E.M. Meijers Institute of the Leiden Law School. The series includes dissertations defended by PhD candidates from the Leiden Law School. Below you will find recent dissertations of team members of the Business & Law Research Network.

This dissertation explores how Large Language Models (LLMs) can effectively and responsibly contribute to complex decision-making processes. By combining AI and human intelligence, Hybrid Intelligence (HI) emerges, allowing the strengths of both humans and machines to be utilized.

This book explores the relationship between tragedy and the justice that is sought in moral philosophy and the law. It shows how our moral and legal judgments can be seen as aesthetic or tragic judgments, and it considers what kind of passion or vocation moves the science and scholarship of law.

This paper examines the need and possibility for developing online resilience-based approaches in response to COVID-19 vaccine conspiracies, often linked to the far right.

In this article, Meier & Nadler suggest that while non-citizen enfranchisement boosts participation across all citizens, citizens with immigration backgrounds are more reactive to the NCV rights in terms of higher turnout. In this way, the paper adds a critical nuance to individual-based explanations…

Facilitating direct citizen participation through online channels is considered as an opportunity for including harder to reach groups in participation.

Across Europe, the need for a more dynamic governance and a better societal integration of research and innovation is increasingly appreciated. Internal drivers of change (such as the digitalization of science) and political will to better align with societal needs and concerns are bringing about aspirational…

This volume challenges the idea that the development of ‘democracy’ is a story of rise and progress at all. It is rather a story of continuous but never completely satisfying attempts of interpreting the rule of the people.

Helping people, groups and policymakers navigate the social transitions of our time.

Knowledge that helps protect the Netherlands and Europe from military and cyber threats.

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) implies that societal actors (researchers, citizens, policy makers, business, third sector organisations, etc.) work together during the whole research and innovation process in order to better align both the process and its outcomes with the values, needs and…

How does open government affect the level of public trust?

Honorata Mazepus, Assisstant Professor at Leiden University, researched the topic of Madisonian Judgments in Five Cultures, together with three other authors.

In this book, Lydie Cabane examines the history of disaster management in South Africa.

Kuba funerary art from the Congo River Basin

This study aims to examine how South Korea (hereafter, Korea) and Japan, two neighboring countries in Northeast Asia, have been responding to and mitigating the spread of COVID-19.

This article tries to examine if one can take the 'One Net' for granted, since the world becomes increasingly fragmented with social and geopolitical tensions. Furthermore, the author seeks to discover what is at stake if the global interoperable network is under a threat of fragmentation.

Debates on political legitimacy in Dutch parliament in the 1880s, 1930s, and 1960s