Latest blog articles

  • Compulsory licensing for pharmaceuticals in investor-state arbitration

    A patent for a medicine gives the patent owner an exclusive right to prevent others from commercially exploiting the patented medicine. When patent regimes work well, the patent holder receives a return for costs of research and development enabling him to continue making further investments.  

    Pharma patent
  • An update on the situation in Ecognomia

    Things aren't going so well on Earth. We are suffering from systemic problems. Resource wastage, ecosystem collapse and climate change make it impossible to claim that things on Earth are working efficiently. But the Gnomes have solved all of these problems. 

    An update on the situation in Ecognomia
  • The Volkswagen emissions scandal

    In the past two years, I have worked on the legal consequences of the Volkswagen scandal. I have focused here and here primarily on whether the corporate social responsibility policy of Volkswagen, in which the company has outlined its commitment to environmental protection, can have legal...

    Volkswagen beetle
  • Reservations over the Netherlands Commercial Court

    On 18 July 2017 the Government submitted a proposal for the establishment of the Netherlands Commercial Court (NCC). In brief, the proposal provides for the establishment of a court (and appellate court) before which parties can litigate in the English language. According to the proposal, the NCC...

    Netherlands Commercial Court
  • Whose sovereignty is it, anyway? Catalonia vs Spain

    The wishes of the Spanish government and those of the Catalan people are diametrically opposed: 90% of voters in the referendum were for independence - but keep in mind also that only about half of the Catalan people voted.

    Catalonia_is_not_Spain
  • How to break the impasse over appellate body nominations

    To avoid the collapse of the WTO dispute settlement system, and thwart any attempt to hold it hostage, WTO members could make use of an oft-overlooked legal provision allowing for arbitration as an alternative to adjudication before the appellate body.

    United_states_court_of_international_trade
  • Myth: Illegal downloading is here to stay

    Where in 2010, about 40 per cent of the population downloaded music, the figure is now a quarter, partly because of the arrival of Spotify. The best strategy to avoid illegal downloading, according to Bastiaan Leeuw, is a mixture of punishment and temptation.

    illegal_downloading
  • AARON cannot be Warhol

    On Friday, 8th September, Ana Ramalho, assistant professor of Intellectual Property Law, delivered a lecture during the Festival of Pleasure, Arts and Science (PAS), at the Faculty of Law, entitled “Can AARON be Warhol?”, in which she examined if copyright should be awarded to artificial...

    Fractal-computer art_MLR
  • Bitter victory

    The 2017 federal parliamentary election heralds a sharp departure from the post-war consensus.

    Merkel_elections_Schleswig-Holstein