Latest blog articles

More than ten years after the European Court of Justice ruled that the German Eigenheimzulage was in breach of European law, the EC also started questioning its successor, the Baukindergeld. ITEM had previously concluded that the Baukindergeld was in breach of European law. We now await the...

The review hearing of Augustin Ngirabatware only lasted from 16^th – 24^th September 2019, yet those 7 days were enough to create shockwaves in this little town in the north-east of Tanzania.

In its judgment of 19 September 2019, the ECJ ruled that Dutch legislation excluding frontier workers residing in the Netherlands but working as a mini-jobber in Germany from the Dutch social security system is compatible with EU law. If the Hoge Raad follows the approach taken by the ECJ, the...

In European societies, Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting FGM/C is regarded as an alien cultural practice that should not be part of society. It is seen as a barbaric tradition that is associated with refugees and immigrants from African and Muslim States who have brought this custom to Europe.

The development of human rights law is part of a fundamental shift in the nature and purpose of the international legal order. Where once international law was considered to regulate purely inter-state concerns, we now talk of the existence of international community interests and a shared...

‘Police, open the door!’ A sentence often heard when police arrest people at their houses. These arrests are often carried out by heavily armed police teams and accompanied by noise, shouting and violence. In this often chaotic situation, one party is often forgotten: the child(ren) of the arrested...

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Op 22 mei 2019 verscheen de ‘Atlas voor gemeenten 2019’. De 50 grootste gemeenten van Nederland worden jaarlijks met elkaar vergeleken. Dat kunnen verschillende beleidsterreinen zijn waar lokale, regionale en centrale overheden zich mee bezighouden...

I wrote my PhD towards the last days of the debate over “social rights”. This debate harkens back to the fifties, when the International Covenant on Social and Cultural Rights was being negotiated. Some claimed that social rights could never be true rights. Others claimed that without social rights...

Over 30 states and 40 business and civil society groups debated strategies for affordable and sustainable medicines prices at last month’s second WHO Fair Pricing Forum—co-sponsored by the government of South Africa.

Marital captivity, which describes a situation in which one or both spouses are not able to terminate a religious marriage and thereby is forced to remain married against her or his will, is an issue that has been receiving national and international attention.