Research

The current Dutch Compulsory Education Act ( leerplichtwet) allows for exceptions that raise questions in practice. Assistant Professor Marieke Hopman believes the legislation regarding the child's right to education conflicts with children's rights.

The Research and Data Centre (WODC) has published a research report on femicide in Dutch legal practice.

A group of legal experts from the Faculty of Law has provided advice on the exercise of the right to demonstrate at Maastricht University (UM).

As one of the Faces of Science, Paula will communicate her research and her work as a scientist to society in various ways.

Donna Yates (Associate Professor in the Criminal Law and Criminology department) has been appointed UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime.

Legal education can be enhanced by activating all senses. Object-based learning and problem-based learning proved to be instrumental in that path towards active transfer and creation of knowledge. The inclusion of relevant visuals in books of law can be likewise of help. Readers can benefit, for example, from the inclusion of portraits of legal actors, of images of seminal volumes, of sketches representing juridical acts, and of maps of specific locations. Legal literature–whenever possible–must outreach more to visual supports that enrich the contents and that enhance readability and academic dialogue.

Copyright lawsuits in the US brought by groups of writers, artists, and musicians against AI developers have mainly focused on the AI training stage rather than the output stage. One of the reasons for this focus is that claimants often struggle to demonstrate that AI outputs are copies of original works. Architecture is different: where general-purpose AI models like GhatGPT reproduce copyright-protected architectural designs, the similarity is remarkable and therefore it becomes easier to demonstrate copying. While we have not seen lawsuits from architects yet, they are likely to be unsuccessful nevertheless. Why?

Can we trust AI with our financial integrity? With financial crime, the stakes aren't just monetary—they involve the rule of law and the health of our democracy. But in the COMCRIM AI PhD project, we are facing a unique challenge: How do you train a machine to find a needle in a haystack when that 'needle' is constantly changing its position? Trying to answer this question, we provide an overview of how AI can support the detection of financial crimes that threaten the rule of law and democracy.

On Thursday, January 22, 2026, the Research and Data Centre (WODC) and the Trimbos Institute jointly organised the annual symposium of the National Drug Monitor (NDM). During the meeting, the latest figures and trends were presented: who uses drugs, and what developments are visible? What stood out? The rise of the new psychoactive substance (NPS) 3MMC, best known by the name MIAUW.

Nobody likes a conflict, especially not about being good enough to belong to a certain profession. All the same, nobody wants to receive medical treatment from a doctor, without sufficient professional performance. So, after graduation, a medical specialist should be competent to provide the level of care sufficient to the norms of the specialty, regardless of any disputes or obstacles during training.