Latest blog articles

  • 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) 

  • What we witness now shows resemblances with the new Turkish and the Russian presidential model: the president has executive powers but is also largely supported by his parliament, banning or disabling the effect of balances of power through their checks and balances.

  • When Trump tweeted "See you in Court, the security of our nation is at stake" he was absolutely right, but not as he intended it to mean. Because yes, courts are essential for the security of (the citizens of) the state.

  • Trump for President MLR blogs

    Blind trust?

    May the US President appoint his son in law as advisor to the White House? For quite a lot formal appointments the President needs the advice and consent (permission) from the senate, but not here. Is it permissible? 

  • The European Union and its member states have failed to comply with their extraterritorial human rights obligations to provide humanitarian aid and fulfil the subsistence rights of asylum-seekers.

  • Published on LBM. To an increasing extent many EU Member States are victim of a variety of natural disasters, including heavy rainfall, flooding, earthquakes, volcano eruptions and tsunamis. A major problem is that after every new natural disaster politicians often have the tendency to play Santa...

  • Legitimacy in the political sense can be defined as an inquiry into the justification for the exercise of public authority. Or put differently: it is the reason why I, being part of society, should accept laws and regulations that bind me.

  • On Saturday 16 of April an earthquake struck Ecuador. At 7.8 on the Richter scale, it levelled various towns of the province of Manabí, in particular Pedernales, Manta and Portoviejo. At current estimates, it has killed more than 500 persons. Many of them died a slow death, after days of being...

  • Refugee crisis and migration may obviously have a lot of different sources. The current refugee crisis in Europe is obviously strongly related to the war in Syria. However, quite often migration and hence a stream of refugees, can also be caused by natural disasters, even by climate change. Some...