Telephone number:	+31 (0)71 527 7398
E-Mail:	a.e.m.leijten@law.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department:	Faculteit Rechtsgeleerdheid, Instituut voor Publiekrecht, Staats- en Bestuursrecht
Office Address:	Kamerlingh Onnes Gebouw Steenschuur 25 2311 ES Leiden Room number FLEX

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General information

Ingrid Leijten (1984) studied Political Science and Law at Leiden University. During her master in Constitutional and Administrative Law she took part in the Talent Program of the Graduate School of Legal Studies. Ingrid also worked as a student-assistant for Prof. H.M.T. Holtmaat, and as an editorial assistant for the NTM/NJCM-Bulletin. After finishing both studies in 2009 Ingrid left for New York where she did her LL.M. at Columbia Law School. While at Columbia, she was a staff editor at the Columbia Journal of European Law(CJEL). After studying for the New York Start Bar Exam, Ingrid came back to Leiden where she is now teaching bachelor I students. Simultaneously, she will be working on her dissertation on the core of fundamental rights in a multi-level legal system, under the supervision of Prof. J.H. Gerards.

Teaching

Introduction constitutional and administrative law (bachelor I)

Research

In 2009 Ingrid wrote a master’s thesis on the proliferation of ECHR rights and the effects of classifying a wide range of interests as ‘fundamental rights’ for national public law procedures. This triggered her specific interest in the role and scope of fundamental rights. Her research focuses on the question what the core of – specific – fundamental rights is. This question is particularly relevant when in a multi level and institutionally and politically complex legal environment the proliferation of fundamental rights comes into conflict with national legal doctrines and practices. The expanded reach of fundamental rights first of all enhances the legal protection individuals enjoy. At the same time however, it might eventually also reduce the willingness of states to guarantee fundamental rights in line with international obligations. Partly from a legal-theoretical and a comparative perspective Ingrid will look at how in particular in the case of the European Court of Human Rights the demarcation and classification of fundamental rights should take place. Over the past decades this court has widened the scope of certain fundamental rights significantly. This means that more and more ‘less fundamental’ interests are dealt with at the international human rights level. She investigates the practices of federal systems and possible solutions for the problem of dealing with different interests at the right legal level, as well as the routines and case law of the ECtHR. The eventual goal of the research is obtaining new insights concerning the way to demarcate and deal with fundamental rights. Supervisor of the research is Prof. J.H. Gerards.