The complexity of an intelligence problem determines to a great extent the certainty that can be provided by intelligence and security services.

Restructuring and insolvency laws play a pivotal role in addressing the often conflicting interests of stakeholders of financially distressed companies. Whereas financial distress is an inherent risk of entrepreneurship in market-based economies, legal tools serve an important role to ensure an orderly…

On 19 February 2019, Mirjam Sombroek-van Doorm defended her thesis 'Medisch beroepsgeheim en de zorgplicht van de arts bij kindermishandeling in de rechtsverhouding tussen arts, kind en ouders'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. A.G. Castermans en Prof. mr. C.J.J.M. Stolker.

As a contribution to the changing legislation and evolving societal attitudes concerning environmental issues, this project aims to enhance and manipulate the plants’ own natural defense mechanisms against western flower thrips (WFT).

Are you planning to conduct clinical research in the Netherlands? In this online course, you are introduced to legislation and procedures on clinical research in the Netherlands. It will help you prepare and submit your research file efficiently. The first three themes ‘The Dutch Review System’ , ‘The…

NASA is offering to buy lunar samples collected by companies for a token sum primarily to set a precedent for space resource rights on the moon. However, there is not international consensus on the U.S. position on the rights to extracted resources.

The ultimate aim of this project (initated by the European Law Institute) is to design a framework that will enable the further development of coherent and functional rules for business rescue in Europe.

This book presents concrete solutions for managing the legal risks distorting the development of various areas of EU law. It pursues an innovative and effective approach to identify legal risks, their causes at the EU level and their impacts on the functioning of the Union and its Member States. It…

How has democracy’s decline affected law making processes, enabling powerful stakeholders’ influence while minimalizing the protection of public interest and the environment?

Leiden experts examine European legislation and ways in which better European legislation lead to citizens' support.

Multinationals use loopholes in the tax treaties between different states. A possible solution would be to eliminate all these loopholes in one go by creating a central global treaty. Leiden researchers are investigating whether this kind of mega-treaty is feasible.

Just Published: EU Banking and Insurance Insolvency (second edition) Authored and Edited by Gabriel Moss QC, Bob Wessels and Matthias Haentjens Published by Oxford University Press

The world is full of wars, and no war is without its dead. What happens to the bodies of fatal casualties of armed conflict? The winner of the faculty Jongbloed Thesis Prize 2015 is Welmoet Wels (Public International Law). Her thesis Dead body management in armed conflict: paradoxes in trying to do…

How do parliamentarians secure their political future? Are their activities in the legislature connected to their place on the candidate list from one election to the next? Political scientists Tom Louwerse and Cynthia van Vonno examine the Dutch case. Their main finding is that speaking in the plenary…

Lotte Melenhorst, PhD candidate at Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science, has been granted a Top Student Award by the International Communication Association's (ICA) Political Communication Panel for her paper on the role of the media in the legislative process. This was announced in May…

Sentencing is becoming increasingly complex for the courts. Legal scholars and criminologists from Leiden document the process of sentencing in the Netherlands. They use this knowledge to advise legislators and those who implement this legislation on how to make sentencing more consistent and effect…

Loopholes in international tax legislation contribute to the misuse of tax rules by multinationals. Leiden University legal experts investigate how the complex national and international tax rules can be made more consistent in order to create a better tax system.

The institute hosts criminal lawyers and criminologists who engage in high-quality scientific research that is also relevant for society.

How should jurisdictions, both on the national and on the supra-national level, handle the interaction between public and private law where it regards the regulation of financial markets?

Twelve researchers of our Law School have been awarded an ILS seed money grant. This grant enables researchers to create space for preparing a grant proposal for NWO, ERC or otherwise.

This paper examines cyber intelligence in the context of national and international security.

The Law & Finance programme of Leiden University looks at financial law from multiple perspectives to illustrate the links between law, economics and ethics.

The Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law offers the Dutch master Financial Law and the Advanced Master Law & Finance. Furthermore, they provide a course within the bachelor International Business Law and offer a wide variety of postgraduate education.

Develop a tool to assess land tenure, access to land and, and land tenure conflict in Timor-Leste

An important aspect of the promotion and safeguarding of good practices at the Institute of Psychology is to make sure that employees are being facilitated and guided by offering information about and resources for training. On this page, an overview of various mandatory and recommended training is…

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…

The Department of Economics concentrates its research on Social Policies, Public Finance and Law and Economics.

On 20 October 2021 Michael Ramsden defended the thesis 'The Role of the United Nations General Assembly in Advancing Accountability for Atrocity Crimes: Legal Powers and Effects'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. N.M. Blokker.

Political scientists Joop van Holsteyn and Tom Louwerse (Leiden University) find that the Dutch government is having a hard time coping with referendum outcomes in general, and ‘anti-European’ sentiments among voters in particular.

Former clients en projects

Governments in parliamentary democracies have limited time in office to fulfill their policy agendas. So, how do they optimise the timing of legislative bills to assure their passage and avoid lengthy parliamentary scrutiny? This question is especially puzzling under coalition governments, in which…

Oxford University Press has published the edited volume based on the European Law Institute's (ELI) project 'Rescue of Business in Insolvency Law'. The project ran from 2013 to 2017 under the auspices of the ELI and was conducted by Bob Wessels and Stephan Madaus, who were assisted by Gert-Jan Boon.

An online course offered by Leiden University on the European Union is among the top 50 MOOCs in the world. This was announced recently by MOOC platform Class Central.

The number of cases of coronavirus in the Netherlands is on the rise. Some mayors are now calling for measures that are more far-reaching than those at present. For example, they want it to be possible to enforce measures behind the front door. Would that be allowed?

One of the recurring points of discussion within the Criminal Justice research programme is the question of what behaviour should or should not fall within the scope of criminal law. This research theme is examined from a legal-dogmatic and social-scientific perspective.

The Role of Law in Libya’s National Reconciliation (RoLLNaR) was a research project that ran from 2017 to 2020. It identified and assessed the role of law – both actual and potential, enabling and constraining – with regard to major challenges of reconciliation in Libya. The project was led by Dr. Suliman…

Every year, more than three thousand businesses are declared insolvent in the Netherlands. The purpose of bankruptcy is to divide the assets of these companies among the creditors. However, the value of the claims of the creditors often exceed the value of the assets of the company

INFORM (Introduction of the data protection reform to the judicial system) is a project granted by the Directorate-General Justice and Consumers of the European Commission.

On 10 november 2021, Carmel van Niekerk-Jacobs defended the thesis 'Realising the right to reproduce with assistance in South Africa'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. J.J. Sloth-Nielsen and Prof. T. Liefaard.

Our library contains around 23,000 books, journals and historical documents under the care of a specialized librarian.

Systematic investigations into religious precepts, worldly rules of law and legal practices in the Muslim world show clearly how these societies deal with justice and injustice. Sharia, the Islamic ‘legal system’, plays an important role in this context.

The European Law Master’s specialisation distinguishes itself by its broad intra-disciplinary approach, covering institutional, constitutional as well as substantive law of the EU in addition to human rights from an EU perspective.

The Dutch atlas with pesticides concentrations in surface waters have been overhauled. This new, free accessible, website is in line with the European Framework Directive on Water (In Dutch: KRW).

This edited volume provides a synthesis on the question of business attitudes towards and its influence over the development of the modern welfare state. It gathers leading scholars in the field to offer both in-depth historical country case studies and comparative chapters that discuss contemporary…

Empirical Legal Studies in Leiden focuses on building an interdisciplinary community of legal scholars and social scientists who collaboratively explore legal questions on the intersection of law and behavior using a variety of methods.

What legislative and regulatory questions arise when children, adolescents or elderly people use the Internet?

How do citizens think about government debt? This project investigates the political roots of government debt crises by exploring the drivers of citizens’ preferences towards fiscal policies.

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Complex systems can be characterized as systems in which multiple components interact with each other, often in non-linear ways. The main goal of this research will be to investigate if and how the international tax system can be defined and modelled as a complex system. Approaching the international…