Mozambican politician and child rights activist Graça Machel will receive an honorary doctorate from Leiden University for her commitment to the rights of women and children in Africa and elsewhere. She will be awarded the honorary doctorate on the Dies Natalis, the University’s foundation day, on 8…

Through various initiatives, Leiden University is trying to make people aware of the importance of biodiversity: the cultivation of a wide variety of micro-organisms, animals and plant species. This is important because in the Netherlands biodiversity has declined from about 40 percent in 1900 to about…

Leiden University has appointed a commission to investigate whether there are any grounds for allegations of antisemitism within the Faculty of Law. The commission, which has already begun its investigation, comprises three members and is chaired by Professor G.J.M. Corstens, former President of the…

It was a remarkable trend in 19th-century London: middle-class bourgeois bohemians falling in love with anarchism and its assassins. University lecturer Michael Newton has been awarded a NIAS subsidy to reconstruct the lives of three of these families.

Four of Leiden's young, talented ethnic minority graduates are to receive an award as part of the Mosiac programme of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The award will allow these budding researchers to fund a four-year research period leading to a doctorate.

In the week of 22 May, a delegation of the Faculty of Science visited Indonesia to strengthen the cooperation with the Universitas Gadjah Mada, the Universitas Indonesia and the Kebun Raja (botanical garden) in Bogor. Furthermore, the delegation visited the faculty of Pharmacy of the Institut Teknologi…

Covid year 2021 might have felt somewhat less strange than the year before, but the virus still left its mark on University life and our students and staff. Fortunately there was also room for research, visiting dignitaries and in-person classes. And our social media accounts weren’t only about covid…

During the 20th anniversary meeting of the Netherlands' Catalysis and Chemistry Conference, Marc Koper received the Netherlands Catalysis and Chemistry Award. ‘The ultimate candidate for the prize’, it says in one of the recommendation letters.

Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) will hold its first international conference on 8-10 June 2022 in The Hague. Deadline submissions: 22 April 2022.

Diana Dávila Gordillo, PhD candidate at Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science does field trips to her native Ecuador.

What is the impact of Ramadan on patients with a bipolar disorder? What does it mean to be sensitive to psychiatric patients' religious beliefs? Driss Moussaoui, a Moroccan psychiatrist, talks about this in a video interview with Leiden University's Islam Centre LUCIS.

The president of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has personally invited Jan Slikkeveer, professor of Ethnobotanical Knowledge Systems in Developing Countries, to give a lecture during the World Culture Forum. The Forum will be hosted in Indonesia from 24 to 27 November.

Courses, business premises for startups or help applying for patents: there are many ways the university can help students or researchers with their businesses.

During an open debate in the UN Security Council on the topic of peacekeeping and human rights, the project

Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition, will deliver the Europa Lecture on 14th June 2017 in the Grand Auditorium of the Academy Building at Leiden University.

On Saturday 15 February 2020, the Leiden University Thesis Prizes were presented during the Dies celebration day for alumni. Joint first prize went to Vincent Peeters, who was awarded a cum laude master's degree in Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure in August 2019.

Recognition for an unprecedented career of more than forty years: Professor of Applied Statistics Jacqueline Meulman of the Mathematical Institute receives the Career Award of the Psychometric Society. ‘A fantastic surprise.’

Seaweed, which is vital for marine life, is disappearing throughout the world at an alarming rate. Different currents and wave patterns can bring about recovery, but more research is needed. This is the conclusion of Achmad Adhitya. His PhD defence has a political edge because of his proposition and…

Just one year ago, nobody would have given Trump a cat's chance in the US presidential elections. Now he will be the next President of the United States. Professor of Journalism and New Media Jaap de Jong explains the rhetoric that has got Trump so far.

Corinne Dettmeijer-Vermeulen, the well-known legal expert and Leiden University alumna, was for many years the National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings and Sexual Violence against Children. On 26 November she will deliver the Cleveringa lecture.

During the 80th session of the Geneva-based Institut de Droit International, Aleydis Nissen was awarded the Andrés Bello Prize. The competition was established by James Brown Scott in 1931 and is carried out under the auspices of the Institut.

On 25-26 October 2022, a select group of high-level participants gathered in Leiden to discuss research on Libya’s national reconciliation and access to justice, and to explore implications for policy and law.

The Corstens Commission that investigated whether there are any grounds for the rumours of antisemitism at the Faculty of Law has found no indication whatsoever for such expressions. This also applies to the professor in question. This is evident from the report that the commission chaired by Professor…

Luuk van Middelaar, Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union and its Institutions, recently wrote an op-ed in Dutch daily newspaper NRC.

The 8th edition of the Brussels Privacy Symposium, co-organised in Brussels by the Future of Privacy Forum and the Brussels Privacy Hub on 7 October 2024, was a great success. More than 160 people from all over Europe and the world attended the event.

This year's “Braunwald Inferno” event, a mixture of winter sports (including an early morning ski race) and political event, took place in the Glarus mountain village of Braunwald Glarus from January 17-19, 2025 in perfect winter conditions.

Cleveringa professor Joanne Liu, international president of Artsen Zonder Grenzen, will give an extra lecture on 24 November. The subject will be how the Ebola crisis was tackled. The Cleveringa lecture itself, on help to refugees, will be held on 25 November.

The University of Bonn, Germany, is happy to announce the opening of the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS).

Ukrainian President Zelensky has indicated on several occasions that he wants to be part of the European Union. According to Caroline van der Plas, Dutch MP for the BoerBurgerBeweging party, this is not possible. Any country that wants to join the EU must go through the standard procedure. No except…

Wat betekent belastinghervorming in de VS? Hoe groot is de invloed van belastingontwijkende multinationals op belastingconcurrentie in ontwikkelde en ontwikkelingslanden? En wat zijn de problemen met belastinguitgaven? Op 7 november vindt een GLOBTAXGOV-T20-seminar plaats op de Campus Den Haag van de…

The German government recently asked the European Central Bank to account for a programme that already ended. Gerrit Dijkstra, assistant professor at Leiden University, wrote an opinion piece for de Volkskrant about how this tick is a sign of a new collision course.

On 28 and 29 October, the first Van Wittel/ Vanvitelli dialogue took place at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague. The Van Wittel/Vanvitelli Dialogue is a high-level roundtable on Italian-Dutch relations, organised by the Clingendael Institute and the Institute for International Affairs in Rome,…

Irma Johanna Mosquera Valderrama, principal investigator of the ERC GLOBTAXGOV project and Associate Professor of Tax Law has participated in the T20 task force on Trade, Investment and Tax Cooperation under the Argentinian Presidency. As a member of the task force, she has contributed to the policy…

On 29 January 2019, CBC News, Canada’s largest news broadcaster, interviewed Dr. Joris Larik about the status of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada.

On 12 October 2023, Kosta delivered a keynote speech on academic freedom at the 30th anniversay conference of the (European) Education Law and Policy Association. The conference was entitled ‘Shaping Education Law for the Future’ and took place at Lisbon University, faculty of law (Universidade de Lisboa,…

Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands will attend the Dies Natalis ceremony at Leiden's Pieterskerk on Friday 7 February to celebrate our 450th anniversary.

‘Who will succeed Frans Timmermans in Brussels?’ is the title of the article in Dutch financial newspaper Financieele Dagblad (FD). Various candidates have been reviewed and all are contenders. But a female candidate may still have an advantage, believes Luuk van Middelaar, Professor of Foundations…

On 18 July 2018 former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela would have been 100 years old. In 1999 the anti-apartheid activist received an honorary doctorate from Leiden University. His response was modest: 'This is not a personal achievement. It is a tribute to all those who were involved in the…

To enjoy the Winter holidays, the Leiden Leadership Centre has selected several interesting illustrations of leadership.

After Zelensky and Putin, President Biden has also used the word ‘genocide’. We should not use the term genocide too loosely, says Professor of Public International Law Larissa van den Herik.

Peter Rodrigues, Professor of Immigration Law, has been appointed as a deputy member of the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights for a period of eighteen months.

Dutch Central Bank President Klaas Knot wants to wind down the European Central Bank’s crisis bond-buying programme this year because the economic outlook is looking increasingly positive.

As South Korean president Moon Jae-in prepares to leave office, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has thanked him for trying to improve relations. Assistant Professor Christopher Green explains in the Calgary Sun what impact North Korea's gesture of goodwill might have.

On 13 December 2024, the yearly ‘Constitutional Law Conference’ took place at Leiden Law School. The central theme of the conference was ‘The Constitution outside the Constitution’.

The most densely populated country in Africa, Nigeria, is fighting a war on two fronts. Not only is Nigeria being confronted with violence on a national level by terror group Boko Haram, on a regional level there are conflicts between shepherds and farmers.

On October 21st, 2019, the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, handed out the National Prize for the Youth in the academic achievement category to our PhD candidate Omar Aguilar Sánchez. He received this honour for his work on Mixtec pictorial manuscripts.

The German Astronomical Society has awarded the 2019 Karl Schwarzschild Medal to professor of Molecular astrophysics Ewine van Dishoeck. She will receive the medal during the annual meeting of the society from 16 to 20 September 2019 in Stuttgart.

It has been crackling within the European People's Party (EPP) for months, but is it also going to explode? Michiel Luining, lecturer at the Institute of Public Administration at Leiden University, gives an explanation of the suspension of Fidesz, the party of the Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán,…

On 27 February, Rodrigo Pica, Secretary of Chile’s Constitutional Court, gave a lecture to the students of the Advanced Master’s in European and International Human Rights Law at Leiden Law School.

The International Institute of Air and Space Law is very proud to announce that Judge Peter Tomka has accepted the position of chairman of its International Advisory Board. During the Board meeting on 15 November 2017, Judge Tomka officially succeeded Professor Laurens Jan Brinkhorst as chairman of…