Latest blog articles

  • Trials and tribulations

    After the United Kingdom had voted to leave the European Union in the national referendum on 23 June 2016, the swift ascent of May to the leadership of a deeply divided nation was not marked by decisive and resolute action, but a sense of uncertainty and strategic obfuscation.

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  • Westminster's turn

    How the Supreme Court restored Parliament to its rightful place. That’s precisely what happened on Tuesday: The Supreme Court decided, by a 8-3 majority, to mandate that the triggering of Article 50 TEU can only take place after prior approval from both houses of Parliament.

    The Yeomen of the Guard proceed to the Lords chamber on their way to undertake the first ceremony of State Opening, the checking of the cellars.
  • Wallonia: small or large?

    How should we describe last week's situation, when the Canadians headed home after the Walloons torpedoed CETA? ... This blog is only available in Dutch. 

    CETA verdrag
  • Supremacy or Parliament?

    The difficult thing about the Brexit referendum and the events that followed in the United Kingdom is that the instrument of a referendum, in all its simplicty, may have undemocratic consequences... This blog is only available in Dutch. 

     

    Brexit_Europe_Referendum
  • Far from calm waters

    They say that one cannot have one’s cake and eat it – a rather well-known adage which the proponents of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union were determined to disprove. This article is only available in Dutch.

    Brexit_EU
  • Extraterritorial human rights obligations to protect refugees

    It took quite a while before the European countries realized and recognized that the influx from asylum-seekers via the Mediterranean Sea and Turkey into the European Union is not just a matter of controlling the outside borders of the Union, but also a humanitarian and human rights issue. Some...

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  • How I stopped worrying about asylum seekers

    In a short memo, published on 22 March, the Dutch Liberal Party (VVD) expressed its view on how to handle the increasing number of asylum claims in the Netherlands, and more broadly in the EU, as well as the continuously tragic events concerning refugees that occur at the external borders of the EU...

    Trapped in despair: ‘The Great Escape’ in the Mediterranean