Latest blog articles

  • Making our curricula Michelin-worthy: skills taught by chefs

    Years ago, when I still had a tv, one of my guilty pleasures was watching Hell’s Kitchen. You know, that show in which a certain foul-mouthed Scottish master chef tries to teach a bunch of unskilled wannabees how to prepare a decent meal, predominantly by yelling at them all the time? Quite an...

    Presentation during symposium
  • Overcoming the pitfalls of anachronisms – and why this matters to all of us

    Every now and again, and especially when redesigning a curriculum, the question regarding the role and place of legal history in said curriculum is brought up. And rightly so. That is why the Open University Law School (UK) organized an online event on 15 December entitled Diversity, Dilemmas and...

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  • Is ‘MOCCA’ in class 30 generic in China?

    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...

    law_mocca_blog_tian_lu
  • The 'goldfish phone booth' copyright case in Japan

    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...

    law_kyodo_blog_oncopyright_tian_lu
  • The deaths of Don Quixote and Pepe the Frog: copyright-wise

    Authors may sentence fictional characters to death to counter unwanted transformation of their characters. The authorship that copyright vests in authors grants them indisputable authority over their creations, so that their characters do not die from users’ transformation.

    Blog about Don-Quixote en Pepe the frog - copyright
  • Judge Land: on Judges and Courts fighting back for the Polish Rule of Law

    The Polish turn away from democracy, named by Sadurski as anti-constitutional populist backsliding, has taken on a new dramatic and bold turn involving the active use of the available tools by the judges to question and address the rule of law problems in Poland. The judges seem to be fighting back...

    Escalator_blog on Polish rule of law_UM.jpg
  • Conventionally unconventional

    During the Anniversary year 2016-2017 the Maastricht law faculty celebrated its 35th birthday. And when you have your birthday, you hand out treats. A book, because that is tradition among faculties celebrating their birthday. A book which tells the story of the faculty and which contains interviews...

    Onconventionele juristen_foto FdR jubileumboek