Latest blog articles

The biggest challenge of the 21^st century is undoubtedly the question of how to tackle the effects of a rising population, expanding industrialisation and growing environmental degradation. Apart from an ever complex world, there are externalities that are the result of the way humankind has been...

Many things happened at the Faculty in the past fortnight. Friday 26 January, we celebrated the 42^nd Dies Natalis of the UM. The one thing I always like about this celebration is that it is enormously varied compared to other universities’ anniversaries.

Legal craftsmanship is no longer the same as being a master of law. One of the challenges we face as a faculty, is how to design our teaching in such a way that our graduates have the skills to work until 2068.

Some colleagues asked me what it is that a dean does all day and why he cannot simply do his fair share of teaching. This question is fully justified and this blog will try to give some insight into work and life of a dean (that, by the way, I am also curious about myself).

If one formula one car hits another, and one of the parties is to blame, does that create liability to pay for the repairs of the other?

One of the major achievements from European integration is the principle of mutual recognition. ^{(Dutch only)}

At the hearing of the parliamentary interrogation commission, investigating tax evasion,Toine Manders claimed at June 16^th, that the government infringes people’s property rights by taxing. ^{(Dutch only)}

On 9 April 2011 a gunman killed 6 people in a shopping mall in the Dutch town of Alphen aan den Rijn. A group of victims now claims damages from the gunman’s parents, claiming that they should have prevented their son from this horrendous act. The claim will fail: on the facts of the case, there is...

How diverse is Dutch science? According to a majority in the Second Chamber, perhaps not quite diverse. Last week, the Chamber adopted a motion that calls upon the government to clarify whether Dutch university staff is made up too much homogeneous. ^{(Dutch only)}

Albert Camus famously wrote that ‘life is the sum of all your choices.’ Private lawyers could not agree more. At the core of private law lies the idea that individuals are allowed to know better than the State.