Latest blog articles

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...

Simone Veil passed away on 30 June 2017, just two weeks shy of her 90^th birthday. The fact that her funeral was a national ceremony at the Hȏtel des Invalides, and that her remains have been interred in the Panthéon - as one of the four women who have been bestowed with this honour because of their...

In European societies, Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting FGM/C is regarded as an alien cultural practice that should not be part of society. It is seen as a barbaric tradition that is associated with refugees and immigrants from African and Muslim States who have brought this custom to Europe.

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...

The Istanbul Convention certainly has the potential to improve the protection and support of battered women. However, much will depend on the implementation by the States parties and the interpretation and assessment of the obligations by the monitoring body.

Every once in a while, I have the good fortune of reading a court case which is both fun and educational. The UK Supreme Court case Ivey (Appellant) v Genting Casinos (UK) Ltd t/a Crockfords (Respondent) is one such case, which tells an interesting story, while also explaining to the public the...