Research conducted by the Department of Child Law and Health Law at Leiden University concerns the legal position of the child at both the national and international level.

The Department of Child Law and Health Law delivers high quality, multidisciplinary legal research on both national and international children’s rights issues as well as health law issues. The implications and meaning of international children’s rights on children and their families form fundamental elements of the research.

At the department, researchers from the Netherlands and abroad are engaged with fundamental (legal) questions and practical dilemmas in the field of child law, health law and international children’s rights.

Specific fields of expertise include: the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, child protection, juvenile justice, child friendly justice, access to justice, violence against children, children’s participation, children’s deprivation of freedom, family law, children in private international law, children and migration, and monitoring of children’s rights. 

The research is part of the following research programmes at Leiden Law School:

• Coherent Private Law;  
• Effective protection of Fundamental Rights in a pluralist world;
• Criminal Justice: Legitimacy, Accountability, and Effectivity;
• Geneesmiddelenontdekking en -ontwikkeling, and;
• Regeneratieve geneeskunde.

Commissioned research

The Department of Child Law offers consultancy expertise in the field of child law and international children’s rights. On a regular basis, research is conducted commissioned by national and international organisations, including UNICEF, the Council of Europe, governments and civil society organisations. If your organisation has a request for research that you would like us to be involved in, please do not hesitate to contact jeugdrecht@law.leidenuniv.nl for more information.