Written by Alexander Hoogenboom, associate researcher at ITEM.
Recent case law of the Court of Justice on EU citizens’ access to benefits has been seen by some as a restrictive turn compared to prior case law, in response to a rise in populism. However, the article by Davies in a recent special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy is to be commended for its original take on this alleged ‘turn to restrictiveness’.
Most people’s gut-feeling would say yes… because it sounds unfair. The CJEU also opines yes, but bends EU trade mark protection rules considerably and thereby increases EU trade mark protection for trade mark proprietors regarding two aspects: 1) the scope of when a sign is used in the course of trade, and 2) the scope of the right of first marketing.
A lot happened in the last two weeks. Not only was there an important message by Saint Nick and Pete, also the Sector Plan Law was finalised. We also look ahead at the Faculty Christmas gathering on Wednesday – with a surprise.
Authors may sentence fictional characters to death to counter unwanted transformation of their characters. The authorship that copyright vests in authors grants them indisputable authority over their creations, so that their characters do not die from users’ transformation.
Seventy years to the day have passed since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. International human rights have since gained ground in theory, discourse, and practice. In this short post, I argue that for human rights to regain some of their traction, we should take care not to use claims to universality in order to avoid substantive moral and legal debates.
What does sovereignty mean in today’s world, given trends of globalisation, Europeanisation and also polarisation?
2018 is the first year in history when more than half of the world’s population is online. Since its dawn, the Internet has changed many aspects of daily life. The first wave of the Internet saw a change in communication: the use of e-mails and the rise of Internet browsers facilitated online transactions and marked the beginning of global access to goods.
Over the years, I have heard various colleagues say they thought empirical legal research (ELR) has been on the rise. Some see this as a positive development, making law and legal research more evidence-based and diverse.
Geographical Indications (also known as GIs) are signs used to safeguard the link between a product and its place of origin. In order for a product to be protected as a GI, the exact production methods and environmental factors need to be documented. It is easy to imagine that traditional products would benefit from this protection. But does GI protection also contribute to innovation in the product, the process of production or its marketing?
This post will focus on the Article 34(1) ICJ Statute requirement that ‘[o]nly states may be parties in cases before the Court’.
