Research conducted at Leiden Law School is closely aligned with the research themes in the fields of social sciences and humanities within the National Sector Plans in the Netherlands.

Through the sector plans for scientific research and university education launched in 2022, the Dutch government aims to improve the quality of higher education and research and promote collaboration between universities. Leiden Law School participates in the sector plan for Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH).

National Sector Plan for Law

From 2018-2025, researchers at our faculty conducted research within two themes of the Nederlands Sectorplan Rechtsgeleerdheid (information only available in Dutch): Institutions for Conflict Resolution and Empirical Legal Studies.

Institutions for Conflict Resolution
The Institutions for Conflict Resolution (COI) theme aimed to contribute to a fundamental review of the problem-preventing and problem-solving capacity of rule of law institutions for the benefit of citizens. To this end, researchers have strengthened the theoretical and empirical basis of research on conflict resolution, focusing on the perspective of the citizen. COI has established structural interuniversity collaboration with researchers from Utrecht University and Radboud University. More information.

Leiden Law School’s new research focus area Trust in institutions builds on the success of COI and will explore more broadly how trust in institutions, both from citizens and between institutions themselves, can be strengthened.

Empirical Legal Studies
The Empirical Legal Studies theme in Leiden aimed to give an impulse to empirical legal research within legal science by establishing innovative research agendas, building a national community and offering training opportunities. At ELS, the focus was on an inclusive research community that places substantive legal issues at the centre and examines them in a broader way using social science methods. Researchers worked closely with five other participating universities (Utrecht University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, University of Groningen, VU University Amsterdam). More information.

For the coming years, Law and empirical research has been chosen as one of the four research focus areas at Leiden Law School, an important step in consolidating empirical-legal research and stimulating further collaboration between departments.

SSH Sector Plan: cross-cutting theme

Since 2024, researchers have participated in the cross-cutting theme ‘Welfare, Participation and Citizenship in a Digital World’.