Over the past decades, the Criminal Law department has built up a strong international reputation for its advanced theoretical as well as practice-oriented research into contemporary issues in international, cross-border and national criminal law.

The Military Law research group has also built up a strong international reputation in the field of international military law and has an international network of partner institutions.

More about research at the Amsterdam Centre for International Law

More about the International Research Network LACMO

The criminal investigation focuses on the following 3 themes: 

Theme 1: Digitalisation and new frontiers in international, cross-border and national criminal law

• Criminal justice in the digital age: new crimes, procedural safeguards, data processing and forensic investigation methods 
• Combating organised, subversive and metropolitan crime through digital investigation methods

Theme 2: Fundamental values in criminal law

• Ethical foundations of criminal law 
• Restorative justice and victims' rights 
• Institutional structures and cultures in criminal justice

Theme 3: Redesign of international and transnational criminal justice systems

• The relationship between international crimes and transnational crime
• Governance of international criminal tribunals
• Legitimacy and critique: the functioning of international criminal justice institutions

A number of current research projects within the aforementioned themes concern:

• 'Artificial Intelligence & Criminal Law' (a joint research project of the Criminal Law Section and the TNO knowledge institute).
• Global Atrocity Justice Constellations (Cost Action JUSTICE360°) (an interdisciplinary consortium bringing together researchers from 32 countries to conceptualize, critically assess and compare the effects which the international criminal justice initiatives and interventions have (if any) on domestic governance structures, societal institutions and local culture).
• International Judicial Governance project (examines the legal, policy, and normative issues raised by the operation of entities entrusted by states and international organisations with governance tasks in respect of international courts and tribunals).
• Rethinking the outer limits of secondary liability for international crimes' (a research project made possible by a VICI research grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).