The Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology is committed to international cooperation and exchange.

Organized by the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, this programme enables students and professionals from all over the world to engage in discussions on the prospects and challenges of international criminal justice. The announcement for the next edition is scheduled to take place…

Are you thinking about studying Air and Space Law ? Learn more and watch the videos.

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?

The Faculty of Law is becoming more sustainable in many ways, both in teaching and research.

Are you thinking about studying the Advanced LL.M. Civil and Commercial Law? Learn more and watch the videos.

Are you thinking about studying the Advanced LL.M. Law and Finance? Learn more and watch the videos.

Are you thinking about studying the Advanced LL.M. Law and Digital Technologies? Learn more and watch the videos.

We encourage applications of visiting scholars whose research interests and activities are in line with our research programme 'Effective Protection of Fundamental Rights in a Pluralist World' or our Key Research Themes. Our dynamic, multidisciplinary research programme aims to bring together researchers…

This project looks at the current practices of marriage law in Indonesia. It examines the often ambiguous views different groups hold of marriage, from local villagers in Bengkulu to women’s activists in Jakarta, and how these relate to the development of national law on the one hand and local practices…

This volume provides an authoritative, cutting-edge resource on the characteristics of both technological and social change in warfare in the twenty-first century, and the challenges such change presents to international law.

The individual in the EU: The application of insights from social psychology to improve the legitimacy and conflict-solving capability of the EU

The Law of the European Union is a complete reference work on all aspects of the law of the European Union, including the institutional framework, the Internal Market, Economic and Monetary Union and external policy and action.

From deepfakes and disinformation to killer robots, surgical robots and AI lawmaking: AI (Artificial Intelligence) is changing our world. That raises the question whether this requires some form of regulation. At eLaw, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University, prof. Bart Custers…

International organisations that represent collaborations between States are becoming increasingly more powerful, and they have an increasing impact on our daily lives. For example, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg established that minors have a right to legal aid immediately following…

Promotor: J.N. Kok, Co-promotor: W.A. Kosters

In October, Sophie Starrenburg was elected as a member of the Coordinating Committee of the ESIL Interest Group on the International Law of Culture. She will work alongside Giovanni Carlo Bruno (Italian National Research Council), Andrzej Jakubowski (Polish Academy of Studies), and Lucas Lixinski (University…

How can international investment law and arbitration take account of the public interest in, and more broadly, the public dimension of, the relations between foreign investors and host States ?

Most of the vast Tibetan literature was authored by monks. They were Buddhists par excellence, educated in a system in which Indic- and Indian-inspired texts played a pivotal role. What they wrote was primarily religious or philosophical in nature, but also extended to ‘secular’ topics. Through the…

On 18 May 2022, Annelien Bouland defended her thesis 'Please give me my divorce: an ethnography of Muslim women and the law in Senegal'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof.dr. J.M. Otto, Prof.dr. M.M.A. Kaag and Dr.ir. C.I.M. Jacobs.

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…

This publication examines the issues regarding the cross-border resolution of financial institutions, focusing on the power allocation between the home and host resolution authorities, i.e. the jurisdiction rule.

Which laws govern the commercial use of outer space? Are States responsible for mitigating space debris? Who is liable for accidents that happen onboard an the aircraft? In our Advanced Master Air and Space Law you will learn how to deal with questions like these from both an international and a European…

Which laws govern the commercial use of outer space? Are States responsible for mitigating space debris? Who is liable for accidents that happen onboard an the aircraft? In our Advanced Master Air and Space Law you will learn how to deal with questions like these from both an international and a European…

In our European and International Business Law Advanced Master programme, you learn to decipher the hierarchy of European & international business law

Law and peace in the work of Hans Kelsen. A re-evaluation of Kelsen’s legal philosophy: legal pacifism as tacit meaning of his Pure Theory of Law

How can legal education in Indonesia become more relevant for graduates who will work in contexts of legal pluralism, aiming for social justice and providing legal services that common citizens need?

Leiden University’s Master of International Civil and Commercial Law (L.L.M.) examines the interrelated layers of hard law, soft law, and relevant case law.

Growing public backlash against international organizations (IOs) and attacks of national political elites on the rule of law increasingly challenge governance by IOs.

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).

Our Master Law in European and International Human Rights Law (LL.M.) looks at the various human rights protection mechanisms from a comparative perspective

The International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) offers PhD candidates the possibility to enroll in the IIASL PhD Track. It is designed for 'external' PhD candidates (buitenpromovendi), who seek to pursue a PhD in Air Law or Space Law while honouring their professional commitments in paralle…

On Thursday 11 May 2017, Qiang Yu defended his doctoral thesis ‘Market Power and Competition Law in the Software Industry’. The supervisors of the research are Professor T.R. Ottervanger and Professor S.C.G. Van den Bogaert. A brief summary of his thesis is provided below.

On 14 September, Erik Plas defended the thesis'Material amendments to public contracts in public procurement law'. The doctoral research was supervised by Jan Hebly and Bart Krans.

On 9 April 2019, Yudan Tan defended her thesis 'The Rome Statute as Evidence of Customary International Law'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. W.A. Schabas.

Are you thinking about studying Law and Society? Learn more and watch the videos.

The starting point for this research project is the notion that the human brain is susceptible to all kinds of fallacies and biases that affect our perceptions and influence our reasoning outside of our conscious awareness. Indeed, most people think they are merely observing facts and that they process…

Are you thinking about studying European and International Human Rights Law? Learn more and watch the videos.

Are you thinking about studying European and International Business Law? Learn more and watch the videos.

‘Visibility and secrecy are both valuable tactics and should not be antagonized in LGBT movements, ’ says Jingshu Zhu. Zhu defended her dissertation on Wednesday 21 February.

Jens Iverson, Assistant Professor of International Law and a Researcher in the Jus Post Bellum Project, defended his Ph.D. dissertation on 21 September 2017.

On 21 February 2019, Ruben Zandvliet defended his thesis 'Trade, Investment and Labour: Interactions in International Law'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. N.J. Schrijver.

This research studies the future perspectives for Malaysian space law. It aims at demonstrating the development of Malaysian outer space activities inclusive of her status with respect to United Nations space conventions and her membership of international and regional space-related organizations.

On 23 April, Andreas Häuselmann defended the thesis 'EU privacy and data protection law applied to AI: unveiling the legal problems for individuals'. The doctoral research was supervised by Gerrit-Jan Zwenne and Bart Custers.

On 31 January 2018 Vestert Borger defended his dissertation entitled ‘The Transformation of the Euro: Law, Contract, Solidarity’. The dissertation has been written under the supervision of Professor Stefaan Van den Bogaert (supervisor) and Dr Jorrit Rijpma (co-supervisor).

Questions of justice are not only the concern of legal professionals, politicians and activists, they also permeate culture at large. Literature, Cinema, Music and Artworks often revolve around questions about rights, justice and fairness, raising a wide range of issues, such as: how do we understand…

Is the legitimacy of law and governance of multilevel jurisdictions diminishing? What is the significance of (diminishing) legitimacy for the effectiveness of law? These kinds of questions about the legitimacy of the supranational formation of law, its application, and the policy and governance based…

On 8 July 2020, Andres Sarmiento Lamus defended his thesis 'The Proliferation of Dissenting Opinions in International Law'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. L.J. van den Herik and Prof. Y.A.A.S. Radi (UCLouvain).

Rutsel Martha, former Minister of Justice of the Dutch Antilles, former General Counsel of Interpol and alumnus of Universiteit Leiden, elaborated on the position of states and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) in international financial law.