Latest blog articles
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The 1st of April 2024 marks the day when Germany adopted the most progressive legal approach to cannabis in Europe. While for the Dutch, this may sound like an April’s fool prank, it is far from it: The new German CanG (Cannabis Law) regulates the consumption, possession, and supply of the soft drug...
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Questions surrounding how the EU budget is spent or audited have been, and will always be, of interest to EU citizens. Formally, the responsibility for the implementation of the budget rests with the Commission, but it is well known that the Member States have a crucial role to play, especially in...
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Germany has elected a new government. One of the legal reforms coalition of Social democrats, the Green party and the free liberals want to put on the tracks is the legalization of cannabis. From a criminological point of view, this is the right decision.
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On 4 March 2021, Italy decided to block a shipment of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine that was destined for Australia. This remarkable move, notably made in response to AstraZeneca’s delay in providing the agreed doses of vaccines by the set deadlines, is the first of its kind since the...
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On the 9th of February, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that forcing suspects to provide access to their smartphone with a fingerprint is not a breach of the privilege against self-incrimination. The case originated from an ex officio appeal ‘in the interest of the law’ in a case of the Court of North...
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Dr. Aletta Jacobs is, in ieder geval voor de meeste Nederlanders, de belichaming van vrouwenrechten en gelijkheid. Maar hoeveel weet je nou écht van deze beroemde feministe? En waarom hebben we een onderwijsruimte naar deze vrouw vernoemd?
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The very recent ruling of the CJEU in DK (C-653/19 PPU, 28 November 2019) came to verify two quite depressing suspicions about the current status of European criminal law. First, Directive 2016/343 on the presumption of innocence remains an instrument with staggeringly limited applicability...
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National laws or ‘legal traditions’ are not the main obstacle to realising the ideal of ‘effective legal assistance’ embedded in the EU procedural rights’ Directives. The resistance to realising this ideal originates mainly from the professional cultures of relevant actors, including criminal...
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Those of you who were old enough to follow news headlines in the 90’s will probably remember this quote. For those of you who don’t: it is a famous phrase used by the defence team of O.J. Simpson in an – as would later turn out: successful – attempt to convince the jury of O.J.’s innocence.