Institutions for Conflict Resolution (COI)
Activities and events
COI@Leiden organises activities and events throughout the year. These include a monthly seminar series on topics relating to conflict resolution and PhD labs to assist COI students in developing their research skills. In addition, COI@Leiden hosted a two-day international conference in July 2022, in collaboration with Utrecht University and Radboud University Nijmegen.
Conflict Resolution Seminars @Leiden
Conflict Resolution Seminars @Leiden is a monthly seminar series for researchers interested in institutions for conflict resolution. The research seminars are intended to explore judicial approaches to resolving difficult and contentious societal problems, ranging from climate protection to race relations. Judicial decision-making at the local, national and supranational levels, as well as alternative dispute resolution approaches, are considered.
These seminars are intended to bring together academics from various disciplines across Leiden University to share ideas and collaborate on mechanisms and strategies that best promote effective and inclusive conflict resolution. The sessions are delivered in a hybrid format (online and in-person, where feasible). If you are interested in becoming a presenter, please contact Asmaa Khadim at a.n.khadim@law.leidenuniv.nl.
PhD Labs
On a monthly basis, PhD students connected to COI@Leiden participate in PhD Labs to present their research and receive feedback from others. Special editions of these labs also take place twice a year: a Winter Skills Lab in which students learn skills that are relevant to conducting (empirical) research on institutions for conflict resolution, and an overarching Summer Lab during which all COI PhDs present their research and receive feedback from each other as well as senior researchers. The PhD Labs are conducted internally and are not open to the public.
Conference 2022
On July 8 and 9, 2022, Leiden University hosted the second conference of the research group on Institutions for Conflict Resolution, in collaboration with Radboud University Nijmegen and Utrecht University. The theme of the conference was Courts as an Arena for Societal Change. The conference brought together nearly 200 researchers and practitioners from around the world, and the overwhelming majority attended in person to discuss the evolving role of the judiciary in addressing difficult and contentious social and political issues.
The topics presented during the various plenary and parallel sessions make it clear that the judiciary faces many challenges at the moment relating to environmental and climate change concerns, migration and human rights issues, threats to democracy, corruption, the impact of COVID-19 on access to justice, and other politicised matters. Some of these topics are covered in our conference blog series on Leiden Law Blog.