Latest blog articles

  • Ensuring compliance with sustainable development provisions in EU FTAs

    The trade and sustainable development chapters included in recent EU FTAs have been criticized for lacking an effective enforcement mechanism, and in particular for the absence of sanctions to ensure compliance. This has been blamed for the poor implementation of their commitments by partner...

    Entrepreneur blog IGIR trade and compliance
  • The Western Balkans enlargement perspective

    With the painful experiences of new Member States breaching the rule of law and democracy principles inside the EU and no tailor-made remedy to punish and enforce EU values, the Commission suggests in its Western Balkans strategy that future accession treaties could provide for such a mechanism to...

    Montenegro-blog West Balkan_Maastricht Law Blogs
  • The basic income and human rights

    To speak of economic justice today is to speak of the basic income. A basic income can be defined as an unconditional cash payment to all persons who form part of a political community. As automation increases, there is fear that labor will be replaced by “robots”. The basic income seems to be a...

    Basic income blog - Faculty of Law Maastricht
  • The Benefits of the Internationalisation of Higher Education

    The internationalisation of higher education (IoHE) relates to sensitive topics of public concern. Considering the ongoing debate in the Netherlands regarding the challenges related to the internationalisation of higher education, it is time to take a step back and remember the many benefits as...

    wikimedia_us_army_53425_jbb_passport_program_provides_worldwide_experiences_verkleind.jpg
  • UM signs charter for more equitable biomedical R&D

    Globally the majority of health-related R&D is invested in medicines with substantial guaranteed returns, yet what is missing is extensive R&D targeted at diseases overwhelmingly prevalent in developing countries. This threatens long-term availability of medicines and treatment options for these...

    UM signs Charter for more Equitable Biomedical R&D
  • On awkward membership: dealing with awkwardness: some positive signals

    There is wide agreement that the EU has not been effective in dealing with what I would define here as values’ awkwardness, cases in which EU Member States threaten the rule of law and the other common values of the European project. The obvious reference is in this respect to Hungary and Poland...

    Protection_no suspect interrogation without a lawyer
  • Plant variety rights and patent: which way to go?

    Innovation is stimulated by a well designed regulatory framework as well as a balanced and effective Intellectual Property (IP) protection. IP protection gives the innovator an exclusive right on his innovation and allows a fair sustained return for his investment. In agricultural industry, plant...

    Plants and seeds - blog conference
  • The unlawfulness of the Syria strikes

    In response to the (alleged) use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime in the city of Douma, the United Kingdom, United States, and France carried out a number of missile strikes against several government facilities. These strikes clearly violate basic rules of international law.

    Unlawfull gas attack blog on Law Blogs Maastricht
  • The proliferation of game clone in China versus copyright law

    “Game clone” means two kinds of act: one is the act of game piracy, where the second game is a reproduction or abridgement of earlier games. Another act is that of creating games where second game contains similar elements as compared to earlier games.

    Chinese game clone example nr 2