Lectures previous years

• Kooijmans Lecture 2025: Liberal democratic backsliding in times of populism, nativism and authoritarianism

  On September 18, the faculty hosted the Lecture 2025, delivered by Prof. Dr. Sarah de Lange. In her lecture, De Lange discussed the rise of far-right political forces and the challenges they pose to liberal democracy, drawing on the latest social science research.

  The rise to power of far-right political forces across the globe, characterized by an ideology premised on authoritarianism, nativism, and populism, was causing democratic backsliding on an unprecedented scale. The separation of powers and the principles of the rule of law, such as equality before the law, an independent judiciary, and the protection of fundamental rights, were being eroded in both newer and established democracies, including Argentina, Hungary, India, Italy, Poland, and the United States. How could we understand the far right’s relationship to liberal democracy and its assault on its foundations? And what types of responses could successfully curb democratic backsliding? Drawing on the latest social science research, Sarah de Lange addressed these urgent questions.

  Sarah L. de Lange is Professor of Political Pluralism in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. She is an expert on the rise of radical, populist, and extremist movements and political parties, their electoral success, their participation in government, and their impact on democracy. She frequently appears in the media (e.g. BBC, CNN, The Economist, Financial Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post) to inform the public about the challenges these forces pose to liberal democracy.

• Kooijmans Lecture 2024: International Criminal Law in Times of Turmoil

  On May 30, the faculty hosted the Kooijmans Lecture 2024. The speaker was Ward Ferdinandusse. In his lecture Ferdinandusse discussed questions about the current challenges in international criminal law, drawing on both academic and judicial experience.

  Ward Ferdinandusse is the Deputy Specialist Prosecutor at the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s Office. He has taught International and European Criminal Law at the University of Groningen and published extensively on issues of national and international criminal law.

  On the occasion of the Kooijmans Lecture 2024, a sum of €1,500 was donated to the Red Cross.

  Read the Kooijmans Lecture by Ward Ferdinandusse

• Kooijmans Lecture 2022: Scans, Sticks and Carrots: Improving Cybersecurity With, Without or in Spite of the Law

  After a long break due to the Corona virus, the annual Kooijmans Lecture 2022 took place on the 23^rd of May. The speaker was Michel van Eeten. In his lecture, entitled "Scans, Sticks and Carrots: Improving Cybersecurity With, Without or in Spite of the Law", he explained the role law plays in cybersecurity.

  Michel van Eeten is a Professor at TU Delft. His chair focuses on cybersecurity governance. He studies the interplay between technological design and economic incentives in cybersecurity. For more information, see his personal webpage. 

• Kooijmans Lecture 2017: Beyond White Innocence

  Gloria Wekker wrote the book White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race, a much-discussed work in which she explores a central paradox of Dutch culture: the passionate denial of racial discrimination and colonial violence coexisting alongside aggressive racism and xenophobia. In her lecture, entitled Beyond White Innocence, she will elucidate upon these themes. Wekker  focuses on sciences and applied science to see how the paradoxical role of race is reflected. Ultimately, her lecture will lead to the question:  How do we get beyond 'white innocence'?

  Wekker is social and cultural anthropologist. Since 2001 she holds the Aletta Chair on Gender and Ethnicity at the Utrecht University. Also she is director of GEM, Centre of Expertise on Gender, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism.

  Watch the Kooijmans Lecture 2017 online.

• Kooijmans Lecture 2016: Nationality as a legal principle

  At the end of September 2016, Prof Joep Leerssen held the Kooijmans lecture, entitled 'Haunted by the Volksgeist: nationality as a legal principle'. In the last two centuries, the law has in some crucial areas been affected by the rise of national thought. Following Savigny, important legal thinkers have considered the law to be an organic reflection of the nation’s character and moral traditions. In addition, a transcendent principle of national identity had been implicitly or explicitly invoked to account for the right to self-determination, or for the state’s continuing permanence across constitutional disruptions or periods of subjection. Not only does the idea of "national identity" affect the emotional sphere of popular politics (as in the Brexit referendum), it has also found formal expression into a notorious clause in the Lisbon Treaty and into a number of rulings by the European Court of Justice.

  Since 1991, Leerssen is Professor of Modern European Letters at the University of Amsterdam. In 2008, he received the Spinozapremie and in 2010 he was appointed Academic Professor by the KNAW, a prize for professors who made a unique contribution to the development of their field of study.

  Read the Kooijmans Lecture 2016.

• Kooijmans Lecture 2015: Struggling with dimensions

  The Kooijmans lecture 2015 was entitled ‘Struggling with Dimensions: Practice and Procedure in the International Criminal Justice System’, held bij Judge Orie on October 19. International Courts and Tribunals struggle with the magnitude of their cases: crimes allegedly committed over a number of years in a vast geographic area; trial documents consisting of close to, or over a million pages; tens of thousands of transcript pages of court hearings and well over ten thousand exhibits in a case. Which managerial and procedural remedies exist to aid this process and do they actually work? The subject of this lecture fits well with the faculty’s research and education in the field of international crimes, which is an important part of the VU profile theme Governance for Society.

  Judge Orie is a presiding judge at the International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia. He was formerly a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands and has also worked as a practicing lawyer. During the Dies Natalis celebration of October 20, 2015 Orie received an honorary doctorate for his outstanding achievements in the field of International Criminal Law.

  Watch the Kooijmans Lecture 2015 online.

• Kooijmans Lecture 2014: No use for justice

  Ineke Sluiter, Professor of Greek Language and Literature at Leiden University held the Kooijmans lecture 2014. The lecture was entitled No use for justice. Self-censorship in construing moral arguments.

  In 1990, Sluiter defended her PhD thesis Ancient grammar in context. Contributions to the study of ancient linguistic thought at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (cum laude). In 1998 she was appointed full professor at Leiden University and in 2010 she won the Spinozapremie.