Latest blog articles

  • Innovating Private Law: on law and technology

    In this blog I like to inform you about a visit to an interesting event on Law and Technology. The organiser has been striving to open the minds of law students from the University of Pavia and expose them to different views as to how technology can offer solutions for legal problems.

    Innovating private law_IRIS scan
  • Absurd claim

    On 9 April 2011 a gunman killed 6 people in a shopping mall in the Dutch town of Alphen aan den Rijn. A group of victims now claims damages from the gunman’s parents, claiming that they should have prevented their son from this horrendous act. The claim will fail: on the facts of the case, there is...

    vreemd_mlr_blogs_header
  • Leftist science?

    How diverse is Dutch science? According to a majority in the Second Chamber, perhaps not quite diverse. Last week, the Chamber adopted a motion that calls upon the government to clarify whether Dutch university staff is made up too much homogeneous. (Dutch only)

    Science left-wing_social-media
  • What is Private Law for?

    Albert Camus famously wrote that ‘life is the sum of all your choices.’ Private lawyers could not agree more. At the core of private law lies the idea that individuals are allowed to know better than the State.

    Pieter Bruegel_the_elder-_the_corn_harvest_august
  • She said no: Italy and Europe after the constitutional referendum

    In the 4th December referendum, Italy rejected the constitutional reforms promoted by the Renzi’s government. As a consequence of the “No” vote, the Prime Minister decided to resign. While the vote was influenced primarily by internal factors, the result may open a period of uncertainty for both...

    Matteo Renzi
  • Black Piets, Burqa Bans, and Radical Populism in a Kakistocracy

    Published on LBM. Here is a fun word that you may have come across recently: Kakistocracy. Based on the Greek word kakistos (meaning “the worst”), kakistocracy is a system of governance run by the least qualified, most “deplorable” citizens that the State has to offer. 

    blog_Trump image
  • Juncker's State of the Union 2016

    It was even featured on Dutch television: the State of the Union by Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission on 14 September 2016... This blog is only available in Dutch. 

    Europese commissie