Today in times of pandemic hospitals face a crisis of scarce resources. In many places this has already led to measures of triage where critical medical care is rationed to those who are most likely to benefit from it. In other places, it is clear that such measures will soon need to be taken.

Slowly but surely we are getting a picture of the many short-term effects COVID-19 is having on the Dutch criminal justice system. In a limited amount of time, many different and far-reaching measures have been taken to adapt to the new circumstances. Courts are closed and only urgent cases are dealt with. Nevertheless, criminal acts with a clear COVID-19 aspect are swiftly tackled through different ways of fast track proceedings (snelrecht).

With the appearance of COVID-19, a disease caused by a novel coronavirus, we need to search for magic bullets, because there is currently no known treatment for the cause of the disease and the therapies being used are focused on treating the symptoms.

On March 4 2020, the European Commission presented its proposal for a European Climate Law in which a framework for achieving the objective of climate neutrality by 2050 would be legally established. At a political level, this goal has already been endorsed by the European Parliament in its resolution of 14 March 2019 and by the European Council in its conclusions of 12 December 2019. The Commission had hardly tabled its proposal before it was bombarded with critique, including that the Climate Law would constitute a power grab by the Commission, in particular by giving it the power to decide on the appropriate 'trajectory' to 2050. In addition, the Commission intends to follow up on and assess the efforts of the Member States. The present contribution will address these two points in the light of EU primary law.

Cross-border non-coordination

Yesterday I was in Maastricht at the Belgian border which is no more than 1 km behind my house. I wanted to see it with my own eyes: the border was closed. The Belgian government has put up barriers to prevent us from entering their country. For five years we at ITEM have been working to reduce the existing legal and fiscal problems in our cross-border Euregion. And now the border is closed. The road is closed. This is of course the opposite of successful Euregional integration.

Trademark squatting has been a serious issue in China now, especially for foreign companies planning to enter the Chinese market. On November 4^th 2019, Beijing Municipal High People's Court issued a second-instance judgment on the “MUJI trademark infringement case”, which rejected the appeal brought forward by the Japanese retail company MUJI and upheld the first instance judgement.

The grant of gene patents has been a highly contentious issue in the EU and US for many years. A new bill in the US proposes to lift the currently banned subject matter, with potentially severe effects.

Last Sunday, when we all got the government alert on our mobile phones to stay at least 1.5 metres away from each other, we were reminded  to ensure ‘social distancing’ as a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  We must follow this advice as it is in our common interest. Although, I don’t like the use of ‘social’ in this context, as I’m convinced that social contacts, be they online or at a distance are especially important in these times. As it has been suggested by others, I prefer the term ‘physical distancing’ to describe this need.

The coronavirus pandemic is certainly the greatest crisis that most of us here in Europe have been confronted with in our lifetime. It affects the lives of every one of us, our families, loved ones, our colleagues and neighbours. The fact that this is a new virus which leads to a contagious disease with ultimately unknown consequences and that the experts can only make predictions about how this will all end generates insecurity, fear and concern about our future—individually, but also as a society.

Comparative law and multiculturalism can evolve together in the classroom at schools of law and result in a fruitful combination. Their interplay should be encouraged.