Latest blog articles

  • House of Cards: when your worst enemy is one of your own

    In the 1980s, in the heyday of Thatcherism, Scottish actor Ian Richardson starred in the leading role of Francis Urquhart in the BBC series House of Cards. In it, Urquhart, who starts out as the Chief Whip for the Conservative government led by Thatcher’s fictional successor, schemes against and...

    law_blog prashant sabharwal house of cards
  • Johan Rudolph Thorbecke

    (1798-1872). Dutch liberal statesman. Drafted the 1848 revision of the Dutch Constitution that established the parliamentary system.

    law_johan_thorbecke_blog_maarten_stremler
  • Montesquieu

    Since the educational spaces in our faculty have all been named, we would like to tell about the background of the elected jurists and cases. Through a series of blogs we want to make the names come to life and show that our building houses a legal faculty. After all, not everyone knows all the ins...

    law_montesquieu_blog_aalt_willem_heringa
  • Parliaments in times of a pandemic – How to ensure functionality?

    The current pandemic caused by the Corona virus has had a decisive impact to all areas of life: from moving school and University education online, to shutting down non-essential businesses while a range of emergency measures were adopted throughout the world for those finding themselves unemployed...

    law_blog_social-distancing_montesquieu
  • A new push for European democracy: what place for (national) parliaments?

    Monday, 9 March 2020 marked the 100th day in office of the new European Commission under President Von der Leyen. The Commission had promised to deliver a number of priorities set out in the President’s Political Guidelines by this self-imposed deadline – priorities that, however, do not include any...

    LAW_thu_nguyen_blog on Europe
  • German Council Presidency – Game changer or paralyzing factor?

    On 1st July 2020 Germany will for the first time in 13 years again take over the rotating six-months Presidency of the Council of the EU – and with the Presidency come high hopes that a Member State with the political weight and capacities such as Germany will be able to significantly push forward...

    Law_blog Thu Nguyen Germany
  • Pilate washing his hands, the CJEU on pre-trial detention

    The very recent ruling of the CJEU in DK (C-653/19 PPU, 28 November 2019) came to verify two quite depressing suspicions about the current status of European criminal law. First, Directive 2016/343 on the presumption of innocence remains an instrument with staggeringly limited applicability...

    LAW_pilate washing his hands_blog by Chrisitina Peristeridou
  • Looking beyond legal traditions towards practical effective legal assistance

    National laws or ‘legal traditions’ are not the main obstacle to realising the ideal of ‘effective legal assistance’ embedded in the EU procedural rights’ Directives. The resistance to realising this ideal originates mainly from the professional cultures of relevant actors, including criminal...

    Law_blog_Anna_Pivaty Criminal defence