Pieter Omtzigt, a strong contender in the polls for the Dutch general elections with his New Social Contract party (NSC), has said he would prefer to remain in parliament as party leader. He is not saying who the NSC candidate for prime minister might be and will only reveal this after the elections.…

This semester, Ingrid Leijten is appointed as a guest professor at the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU).

How can governments reach their policy goals in the most effective way? Which manner of financing is the most suitable? Does the spirit of our times call for new forms of subsidy? What does the future of subsidy law look like?

Rianne Letschert, Universiteitsbestuur in Maastricht krijgt de opdracht een nieuw meerderheidskabinet te formeren. Ondanks haar Haagse outsiderstatus tonen partijen vertrouwen. Wim Voermans, hoogleraar Staatsrecht, is te gast in Pauw & De Wit om te praten over de nieuwe formateur.

Volgens Wim Voermans, hoogleraar staatsrecht, zullen losse erkenningen van landen niet zoveel betekenen. Erkenning is volgens de hoogleraar pas betekenisvol als ook grote spelers als de VS meedoen, zegt hij in NU.nl.

All sorts of predictions have already been made about the AI system ChatGPT: the programme is going to turn education on its head, make search engines look old-fashioned, and put copywriters out of business. Copywriters? Does that include legislative draftsmen? In other words, can ChatGPT draft legislative…

Some examples of AI-research done at Leiden.

For most of the past ten years, Europe has been in a state of ‘crisis’. The bank crisis mutated seamlessly via the Euro crisis to the present migrant crisis. Whereas previously the general assumption was that even closer cooperation within the European Union was a foregone conclusion, the EU is now…

Esmée Driessen presented and defended her preliminary report ‘De dienstbare overheid bij het faciliteren van burgerinitiatieven’ (service-minded government and facilitating citizens’ initiatives) during the Young VAR (Young Administrative Law Association) on Friday 18 November.

On 14 and 15 September, the 'Lobbying the Courts' workshop took place in Paris. This was an interdisciplinary workshop in which researchers from different disciplines came together to brainstorm on whether, how, and when interest groups focus on the judicial process and the courts in their lobbying…

In a lawsuit concerning the upcoming Dutch elections, the Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals) is claiming that everyone should be able to cast a postal vote. Is it a form of discrimination that everyone above the age of 70 is allowed to cast their vote by post, but people who are younger and…

On 18 september 2018, Jonathan Price defended his doctoral thesis 'The Egalitarian Constitution'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. A.A.M. Kinneging.

Power and money are not enough for big tech entrepreneurs who are investing billions in digital nations. Reijer Passchier, Professor of Digitalisation and the Democratic Rule of Law (OU) and Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law, and Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, share their concerns…

Een groep deskundigen dringen aan op volledige transparantie rond de geplande verkoop van het DigiD platform aan het Amerikaans bedrijf en waarschuwen voor risico’s voor de digitale soevereiniteit. Reijer Passchier, hoogleraar digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat (OU) en universitair docent…

Research from Dutch news organisation NOS shows that gambling companies, including Holland Casino and the Dutch Lottery, have more influence on the creation of new rules on gambling adverts than addiction experts.

Information obtained from Czech intelligence authorities has shown that politicians from several European countries, including the Netherlands, are involved in a Russian bribery scandal. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, comments on this in Dutch newspaper ‘NRC’.

The ‘spreidingswet’ (dispersal law) has been passed by Dutch Senate and will take effect on 1 February. In the municipality of Westland, however, a majority in the council is unwilling to create 700 extra reception places.

During her time as Speaker of the Dutch House of Representatives, Arib was, among other things, accused of creating an 'unsafe working environment'. To prevent disclosure of the case, she is taking legal action to demand access to all documents and their subsequent destruction. In addition, she is demanding…

Research conducted by Dutch news programme ‘Nieuwsuur’ into the work carried out by Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands for victims of the childcare benefits scandal raises many questions. Legal experts are puzzled as to how the Cabinet at the time assigned the tasks. Geerten Boogaard, Professor…

Dutch talkshow ‘Vier Avonden op Rij’ focused on the fall of the Schoof Cabinet, caused by PVV leader Geert Wilders withdrawing from the coalition. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, called the fall of the cabinet 'dramatic'.

Tarlach McGonagle has been appointed as Professor of Media Law in the Information Society as of 1 May 2019. The Chair is established by the Leiden University Fund (LUF) and is situated within the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law.

More allowance should be made for differences between municipalities, argues Geerten Boogaard, Thorbecke Professor of Local Government. The Municipalities Act could, for instance, offer a ‘menu of options’ for the decision on whether to have an elected mayor. Professor Boogaard will deliver his inaugural…

Jaroslaw Kantorowicz, assistant professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, is a co-author of this publication that explores the nature of the ideological bias in a constitutionally relevant decision.

The promise made in the run-up to the last Dutch elections that the ‘next cabinet formation process will be quicker and more transparent’ has already proven unrealistic. To what extent does a minority Dutch government stand a chance in the Netherlands’ fragmented political landscape? Corné Smit, external…

Het Centraal Orgaan opvang asielzoekers (COA) moet dwangsommen gaan betalen aan de gemeente Westerwolde bij overbezetting in Ter Apel. Wim Voermans, hoogleraar Staats- en Bestuursrecht, spreekt zich bij Sven op 1 uit tegen de maatregel: ‘Ze willen chaos creëren.’

Na de 7 oktober demonstraties schoffeerde Wilders burgemeester Halsema, door op X te roepen dat zij het land moet verlaten. Volgens experts overtreedt Wilders hiermee de gemaakte afspraken met de coalitiepartijen. Wim Voermans, hoogleraar Staatsrecht, hierover aan het woord in het Parool.

What is the impact of digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the functioning of our constitution? Reijer Passchier, Assistant Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, warns in an article in Leidraad that digitalisation is giving the executive branch more and more power, and that…

Een minderheidskabinet komt in Nederland nauwelijks voor. Dat ligt volgens Corné Smit, gastmedewerker staats- en bestuursrecht, die onlangs op dit onderwerp promoveerde, aan de diepgewortelde traditie van meerderheidskabinetten, zegt hij in EenVandaag.

On Friday 13 December the VI RIDE Conference on the Modernization of European Administrative Law took place at the National Institute of Public Administration in Madrid.

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The Netherlands aims to have open and responsive government. As part of the ‘Actieplan Open Overheid’, Ymre Schuurmans, Annemarie Drahmann and Louis Honée from the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law are researching how citizens' information position in administrative law proceedings…

'Bestaanszekerheid' (socio-economic security) is the buzzword in the Netherlands and the magic word in the current election campaign. The King also dropped the word in his Speech from the Throne on Budget Day.

Last week, the Dutch Council of Ministers adopted the decision to modernise the process of prosecuting politicians. This action was taken following the Russian bribery scandal involving Dutch politicians. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, discusses this in Dutch daily newspaper ‘NRC’.

In reactie op de uitspraken van de Raad van State en de civiele rechter presenteerde Land- en Tuinbouworganisatie (LTO) onlangs nieuwe plannen. Rogier Kegge, universitair docent bestuurs- en omgevingsrecht, reflecteert op verzoek van de NOS op deze plannen.

De dagen van demissionair premier Dick Schoof zijn geteld. Met de Algemene Politieke Beschouwingen achter de rug komt een einde aan een ongebruikelijk experiment: een partijloze premier. Hoogleraar staatsrecht, Wim Voermans, spreekt in EenVandaag over een ‘een deerlijk mislukt experiment, eens maar…

There is much unrest among local stallholders in Utrecht. Owners who for decades had a permanent pitch for their stall are no longer guaranteed this due to new European regulations. So no more benefits for the current stallholders which is causing them great uncertainty and frustration.

On Friday 23 November 2018 Professor W. (Willemien) den Ouden and Professor J.E. (Jacobine) van den Brink acted as keynote speakers at a conference entitled Private Enforcement of European Competition and State Aid Law: Current challenges and the way forward.

Those who seek justice do not always manage to find their way through the legal system. Yet the Dutch Legal Aid Act assumes that citizens are self-reliant and can stand up for their interests in cases that are not legally complex. However, in the childcare benefits affair in the Netherlands, this proved…

Reijer Passchier, universitair docent Staatsrecht en hoogleraar Digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat aan de OU, verzorgde op 20 maart jl. een actualiteitencollege over de macht van Big Tech, dat het Montesquieu Instituut, in samenwerking met de Academie voor de Rechtsstaat organiseerde.

Het boek met de titel ‘the story of constitutions’ probeert interdisciplinair te begrijpen waar de grondwet vandaan komt en waarom het juist nu in korte tijd viral is gegaan. Waarom is dit oeroude fenomeen de laatste jaren zo in populariteit toegenomen en ook nog eens in een tijd, waarin democratieën…

Op dinsdag 15 oktober 2024 nam Rogier Kegge, universitair docent Staats- en bestuursrecht, deel aan de zogenoemde technische briefing van de vaste commissie voor Infrastructuur en Waterstaat over het voorzorgsbeginsel.

The process of forming a new coalition government in the Netherlands continued in the city of Hilversum last week. Geert Wilders has promised to withdraw three controversial own-initiative proposals in order to accommodate potential coalition partners. But is that enough to persuade Pieter Omtzigt,…

In navolging van Duitsland en het Verenigd Koninkrijk, wil de ministerraad een nieuw wetsvoorstel, om verheerlijking van terrorisme en steunbetuiging aan terroristische organisaties strafbaar te stellen. Wim Voermans, hoogleraar Staatsrecht, duidt de zaak in Dagblad Trouw.

On 1 October 2022, Reijer Passchier was appointed as Professor Digitalisation and the Democratic Constitutional State at the Open University. Reijer is also working at Leiden University as Assistant Professor at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law.

Chances that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will become Secretary General of NATO are becoming increasingly likely now that the US and most western countries have expressed their support. The question now is how to appoint someone to the position of Prime Minister, who to appoint and when the situation…

Rowie Stolk ontving op 16 mei Rowie Stolk de VAR-Lex Michiels prijs voor haar proefschrift ‘Procederende belangenorganisaties in de polder: Een interdisciplinair perspectief op de toegang tot de rechter’.

Met de voorgestelde Wet wil Defensie sneller kunnen inspelen op internationale dreigingen, door uitbreiding van kazernes en militaire oefenterreinen te realiseren. Universitair docent, Rogier Kegge, spreekt in EenVandaag over deze gereedstelling van Defensie en de rechtsbescherming voor omwonenden.

‘Voor de formatie moeten grote, controversiële beslissingen worden genomen waar een breed draagvlak voor moet zijn. Dat vraagt om goede afspraken en een rustig proces’, zegt Wim Voermans, hoogleraar Staatsrecht, in een uitzending van WNL op Zondag.

This year’s Staatsrechtconferentie (Constitutional Law Conference) was held at the University of Amsterdam on 13 December 2019 and dedicated to the topic of the Economic Constitution. Dr. Eduardo Arenas Catalán, lecturer at the Europa Institute, presented his paper Where do social rights begin? Dr.…