Latest blog articles

  • Trump wall - blog Maastricht University

    Emergency for a wall?

    Is it legally possible for Trump to invoke an emergency in order to avoid Congress and obtain the necessary funds to build his wall? Or put differently: is it possible under US law to undo the refusal of Congress to appropriate the necessary funds?

  • Most people’s gut-feeling would say yes… because it sounds unfair. The CJEU also opines yes, but bends EU trade mark protection rules considerably and thereby increases EU trade mark protection for trade mark proprietors regarding two aspects: 1) the scope of when a sign is used in the course of...

  • In May 2018 the European Commission presented the plan of a new financial framework for 2021-2027. In which is stated that the European Commission, among other things, aims to make the subsidies which are given to the countries, conditional upon the level at which a member state complies with EU...

  • Yelling, offensive language, indecent sounds, and to a certain extent even behaviors are being protected as ‘speech’ or as ‘symbolic speech’ by Article 7 of the constitution. If we believe criminal justice is an appropriate instrument, an intervention is only allowed on the part of the national...

  • In today’s (15 september 2015) King’s speech the King said that the government will have as a point of departure for its presidency in 2016 of the Council of Ministers, a Europe which functions better and aims at essentials. Furthermore it will work towards an innovative Europe with a well...

  • On September 9th 2015 the president of the Commission, Juncker, adressed for his first time the European Parliament in his State of the Union.  This year’s State of the Union was entitled: Time for Honesty, Unity and Solidarity. And the key concepts were: more Europe in the Union, and more Union in...