Constitutional and administrative law covers a broad area of law. It provides the rules with which issues in society can be solved by government authorities.

Constitutional and administrative law is a specialisation of the master’s programme Rechtsgeleerdheid (Law) at the renowned Leiden Law School of Leiden University. This programme looks closely at the interaction between national and European law.

On Tuesday 12 January 2021, the Leiden Law School thesis prizes were awarded at the New Year’s event.

On Wednesday, September 27th the mayor of Leiden, Henri Lenferink, gave a lecture to the master's-degree students of Child Law, Criminal Law and Constitutional and administrative law.

Managing scarcity to serve the public interest is a classic government task. An important way to execute this task is by allocating individual rights that are only available in limited quantities, such as CO2 emission allowances, gambling licences, subsidies, radio frequencies, public contracts and…

The institute that focuses on Public Law is as broad as the field itself. The Institute of Public Law has six departments, each with its own research agenda.

The Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law of Leiden University has published a collection of research essays on the separation of powers. This collection addresses the main question of whether the historically developed combination of concepts of democratic legitimacy and the separation…

Sofia Ranchordas (1985) has been appointed Chair European and Comparative Public Law and Rosalind Franklin Fellow at the University of Groningen. She will start this position on October 1st.

The Council of State in the Netherlands has drawn up a programme of reflection to evaluate the role of the highest administrative court in the child benefits scandal and to learn lessons for the future.

On 22 April the 5th edition of the book Introduction to Dutch Law (edited by Jeroen Chorus, Ewoud Hondius and Wim Voermans) was presented to dr. Geert Corstens, former president of the Dutch Supreme Court.

Louis Honée, a student assistant for the Thorbecke chair and the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, is one of the new European Universities Debating Champions. Together with his team partner, he beat around 150 teams in the English as a Second Language category.

The Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law of Leiden University is active in education in various ways.

On 29 and 30 June, Ingrid Leijten participated in an international workshop held at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISJ) in Oñati, Spain.

The department of Constitutional and administrative law is situated in the Kamerlingh Onnes building

The Dutch government will be unable to make wearing face masks mandatory in public spaces in the short term, according to three constitutional and administrative law experts in NRC newspaper, including Wim Voermans.

Geert Wilders’ PVV Party believes that Islam is a totalitarian ideology and not a religion, and thus Muslims are not equally entitled to the same freedom of religion or belief as other believers. This view is incompatible with liberal democracy, according to Hans-Martien ten Napel.

The Netherlands Council of State ruled at the end of March that WhatsApp and text messages on the work and private cell phones of civil servants are considered to be official records. This decision puts the government in a difficult position. How are you going to store millions of texts and WhatsApp…

The research performed by the staff of the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law of Leiden University is presented in the personal webpages of its staff.

From 26-30 June 2017 the first edition of the summer course on the Europeanisation of administrative law in the EU Member States took place in The Hague.

On 13 April, an expert meeting to discuss the doctoral thesis of Eduardo Arenas Catalán was held at Leiden Law School. The discussion, chaired by Aart Hendriks, Professor of Health Law at Leiden Law School, included the contributions from Javier Couso Salas, Professor at Universidad Diego Portales and…

On 17 and 18 November 2016 the World Bank in Washington, D.C. hosted the Fourth International Conference on Legislation and Law Reform.

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?

Willemien den Ouden, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law and Academic Director of the Institute of Public Law has been appointed State Councillor at the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State in the Netherlands.

Are you interested in current affairs, developments in society and people? Are you highly motivated, willing to be challenged and able to go just a bit further in finding creative solutions to legal issues, then Rechtsgeleerdheid is the master’s programme for you.

Paul Adriaanse, together with eight other candidates, has been nominated in the administration law category for the title ‘Magna Charta Lawyer of the year’. The public will vote to decide the winner

Emily is a Master's student in Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden Law School.

Anne Meuwese is appointed Professor of Public Law & Governance of AI at Leiden University as of 1 November 2020. This position is part of the University SAILS network, one of the new university-wide interdisciplinary development programmes funded by the Executive Board of Leiden University.

From 26 to 30 June 2017 a summer course on Europeanisation of administrative law in the Member States of the European Union will be held by the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law.

In October 2020, the Dutch Journal of Administrative Law had a special PhD issue, giving an overview of all PhD research currently being conducted in the area of administrative law in the Netherlands.

Conference

The Faculty Board has appointed Professor Ymre Schuurmans as Academic Director of the Institute of Public Law. Schuurmans is Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law and was Head of the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law for the past six years.

On 11 November 2016, The Hague Law Labs and the department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, in collaboration with the Italian Association for European and Comparative Law, will organise ‘The Dutch Constitution Beyond 200: tradition and innovation in a multilevel legal order'.

The traditional Res Publica study trip took place this year from 20 to 24 April. Because of the coronavirus restrictions, the members of Res Publica – the faculty’s study association for constitutional and administrative law – travelled ‘virtually’ to Portugal, the United States and Singapore. Of course,…

On 2 September 2019, the Constitutional and Administrative Law Department of Leiden Law School and Review of European Administrative Law REALaw are organising a Conference on the Europeanisation of national administrative law through general principles of law: from resistance to voluntary adoption. Subsequently,…

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…

On Thursday 9 november, Reijer Passchier defended his dissertation 'Informal constitutional change'. His supervisor is Professor Wim Voermans.

Professor Willemien den Ouden has been appointed as the new Academic Director of the Institute of Public Law starting 1 September 2017. She will take over from Professor Wim Voermans who has held this position for the past seven years.

From January to March 2020 Ymre Schuurmans, full professor in Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden University, will be a visiting professor at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

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).

On 18 september 2018, Jonathan Price defended his doctoral thesis 'The Egalitarian Constitution'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. A.A.M. Kinneging.

By a ruling of the Dutch Council of State, local residents and organisations can after all take their case to court even if they made no objection during a consultation session. This extension of access to court is the outcome of a judgment by the European Court of Justice. The Court ruled that in this…

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 increase in the European Union's executive powers in the areas of economic and financial governance has thrown into sharp relief the challenges of EU law in constituting, framing, and constraining the decision-making processes and political choices that have hitherto supported European integration.…

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Tarlach McGonagle has been appointed as Professor of Media Law in the Information Society as of 1 May 2019. The Chair is established by the Leiden University Fund (LUF) and is situated within the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law.

The government’s intention to be more transparent following the childcare benefits scandal is long overdue according to Annemarie Drahmann, Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law. One of the problems behind the benefits scandal was the lack of openness of the authorities. The government…

Research shows that including administrative fines in the screening process for a Certificate of Conduct (in Dutch: VOG) is not currently feasible.

Rowie Stolk, PhD candidate at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law has been admitted as a visiting researcher to UCLA School of Law (University of California, Los Angeles) where she will stay during the first semester 2019 – 2020.

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