Latest blog articles

From 30 November to 12 December 2023, the COP28 climate summit took place in Dubai. It is special because all parties agreed to phase out fossil fuel use, triple global renewable energy generation capacity by 2030 and double energy efficiency. This annual UN climate conference is the world’s largest...

What does the term ‘MOCCA’ evoke in your mind, a kind of coffee or a specific brand? This Kat randomly asked this question to her friends currently at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition Munich. Most of them regarded ‘MOCCA’ as a kind of coffee instead of a specific brand except...

Nobuki Yamamoto, a Japanese contemporary artist, made an eye-catching work of ‘goldfish swimming in a phone booth’ (‘Work 1’) by December 2000 at the latest. In October 2011, a student organisation called ‘Goldfish Club’ at Kyoto University of Art and Design produced Work 2 and exhibited it for a...

Recently, Chanel Co., Ltd. lost a trade mark infringement case regarding its ‘Double C’ logo in China. The full text of the decision can be visited via here (Google translatable). The case has drawn wide attention and, mostly, negative comments. Does this seemingly-counterintuitive loss indeed, well...

This blog is currently only available in Dutch.

Op 22 mei 2019 verscheen de ‘Atlas voor gemeenten 2019’. De 50 grootste gemeenten van Nederland worden jaarlijks met elkaar vergeleken. Dat kunnen verschillende beleidsterreinen zijn waar lokale, regionale en centrale overheden zich mee bezighouden...

My message is, however, that next to the main lines of law’s contents, law students should learn about the ways in which law affects society and its participants. In this connection, they should study selected topics from sociology, but also – and that is the main message here – the cognitive...

A little bit of provocation sharpens the mind. Let me therefore start with a provocative thesis: Most lawyers have no idea what law is.

Is there such a thing as ‘European private law’? In my opinion there is not, just as there is no Dutch, French, English, or Chinese private law. Let me explain. Legal rules, including rules of private law, have many characteristics.