Latest blog articles

  • Recently, politicians in different EU countries have suggested barring Russian tourists from visiting the EU (see reporting here and here). Such a ban would be in retaliation for the war waged by Russia against Ukraine. From a legal perspective, these suggestions raise the interesting question...

  • Breath in, breath out. Yes, the judgment of the (unlawfully composed) Polish Constitutional Tribunal is a serious challenge to the European Union’s legal system and to the principle of primacy of EU law. No, Poland has not activated the process of withdrawal from the EU under Article 50 TEU. Yes, EU...

  • On Friday 31 July, the Cypriot parliament voted against the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada. This latest development in the ratification process of CETA illustrates perfectly how facultative mixity continuously frustrates our collective interest in seeing the...

  • With the development of international trade, local products have started to spread all around the world and become popular worldwide. Geographical indications (GIs) are meant to protect the use of the name that indicates certain characteristics and the origin of products typical for a particular...

  • SMECC stands for School, Minimum standard, Education, Child-friendly policy and care-Continuum. Imagine SMECC as a flat drawing of a house. The regulatory backstop is the minimum standard in family litigation for competent parenthood – far on the horizon, however, a necessary fundament of human...

  • Asylum seekers usually do not cross borders with a bag of documents. They have lost their personal belongings or have been confiscated by smugglers. Oral statements are therefore the only proof of origin. (Dutch only) 

  • For those who have already looked into the programme, one first impression is that it is crazy short and jam-packed with contents (1 course per 4 weeks). And in being short, choosing your specialization for the second semester (February - June) means the pressure is on for some to make up their...

  • One difference (depending on the discipline as well) between a Bachelor and Master programme is the workload. Would I say the shift is significant between the Bachelor I have completed and now? Not only might it be too soon to say (I shall follow up with another post at the end of the first semester...

  • Greetings and thanks for stopping by! My name is Shelly and the purpose of this blog is to document my experiences as a Masters student of the European Studies in Society, Sciences, and Technology Study programme (that's a mouthful so let's go with ESST!)