IGIR reporter

Copyright lawsuits in the US brought by groups of writers, artists, and musicians against AI developers have mainly focused on the AI training stage rather than the output stage. One of the reasons for this focus is that claimants often struggle to demonstrate that AI outputs are copies of original works. Architecture is different: where general-purpose AI models like GhatGPT reproduce copyright-protected architectural designs, the similarity is remarkable and therefore it becomes easier to demonstrate copying. While we have not seen lawsuits from architects yet, they are likely to be unsuccessful nevertheless. Why?

On 24 March, a long-negotiated trade deal between the European Union and Australia finally became a reality. This is a welcome development in light of the current geopolitical and economic uncertainties. The agreement follows a series of recently concluded EU trade deals with important partners such as Indonesia and India, reflecting the EU’s broader strategy to expand its economic presence in key markets and to help European businesses diversify their trade relationships. Given the scale of the economies involved, these agreements are expected to have a significant economic impact.

How might the IACtHR Advisory Opinion on climate emergency and human rights reshape the Plastics Treaty negotiations?

For decades, multilateralism has been the guiding principle for regulating international trade relations between states. The European Union (EU) has long championed this approach, firmly believing that global cooperation - ideally through consensus among all countries - is the most effective way to govern state trade relations. As a fallback, the EU has also supported plurilateralism, where a critical mass of countries agrees on rules even if not everyone is on board.

On 17 April, many of us had the pleasure of attending an IGIR Expert Lecture by John Clarke, former Chief Agriculture Negotiator of the European Union and former Head of the EU Delegation to the World Trade Organization and the United Nations in Geneva. He is currently a fellow at the Maastricht University Institute for Globalisation and International Regulation (IGIR). During his talk, John offered valuable insights into the escalating trade war sparked by the sweeping tariffs recently introduced by US President Donald Trump.