Institute for Transnational Legal Research
METRO, the Institute for Transnational Legal Research (in Dutch: Maastrichts Europees instituut voor Transnationaal Rechtswetenschappelijk Onderzoek), contributes to environmental law, tort law, competition law, and the economic analysis of law by executing high-quality research. Metro distinguishes itself for dedicated researchers in various fields of law.
Fast facts
- focus on environmental law, tort law, and economic analysis of law
- publisher of the Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law
- publisher of the Ius Commune Europaeum Book Series
- very active in contract research
- led by Prof. Michael Faure
Research
METRO initiates and stimulates comparative and transboundary legal research and organizes conferences about various legal themes. Moreover, the institute publishes the Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, one of the top three journals in this field in Europe and the Ius Commune Europaeum Book Series. METRO is active in the field of contract research, for example for the EU, OECD, national governments and associations of insurers.
Core research topics of METRO include environmental law (including climate change, one of the topics listed under the pillar of Global Justice), tort law & insurance, and competition & regulation. METRO is specialised in the economic analysis of law. In that respect, METRO research has been geared towards a variety of Institutional transformations, for example by analyzing smart mixes of regulation, and to the pillar of Globalising Markets, for example by examining competition law in emerging markets.
METRO’s research takes place
in the following pillars:
1. Global Justice
2. Institutional Transformations
3. Globalising Markets
News
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In October of this year, METRO will co-organize with the faculty of law of the University of Lomé (Togo) a conference at the University of Lomé on the legal aspects of climate change. The conference will be held in French.
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On 28 February, METRO researcher Qian Wu successfully defended her PhD thesis 'Tying in Digital Platforms under the Competition Legal Framework in China and the EU: A Comparative Law and Economics Perspective'.
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On 17 January 2023, METRO will organize the seminar 'The Evolving Nature of the Rule of Law in International Economic Law'. The seminar will be held at the StayOkay in Maastricht. Programme and free registration are available here.
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On 23 November 2022, METRO researcher Minzhen Jiang successfully defended her PhD thesis with the title 'Compensation and Prevention for Damage Resulting from Offshore Drilling in China' at Maastricht University.
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On Friday 10 June 2022, Michael Faure and Niels Philipsen both presented (online) at the China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) in Beijing, at the occasion of the 70th anniversary of CUPL. The presentations were held in the context of the 8th international conference on Law and Economics: Law and Economics in the Post-Pandemic World.
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How can a more economic analysis strengthen our innovation policies to achieve a truly competitive digital single market?
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On 29 June 2022, METRO will co-organize the event 'Debating the Future of the Energy Charter Treaty', held at UM Campus Brussels and via Zoom. Registration is possible via this link.
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In this online seminar on recent developments in competition law and policy, speakers from China and the EU will present their ongoing or recently published research. It will take place on 7-8 April 2022.
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Recently Niels Philipsen was interviewed by Dutch news radio station BNR on the question whether there are legal or economic arguments to split up Big Tech companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft. The podcast of that interview is available online. Philipsen also wrote a blog on the topic.
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METRO is happy to present two 'young doctors', who recently defended their PhD thesis successfully. One defence took place in late 2021 (Dr. Huizi Ai), the other in early 2022 (Dr. Marie Abalo).
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On 1 December 2021 METRO will organize an online seminar entitled 'The Impact of the EU Green Deal on Chinese trade and investment in Europe: Opportunities and challenges'. This online event will address the potential consequences of the EU Green Deal for Chinese investments in Europe.
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Should the rich pay higher fines? The fascinating topic of 'day fines' is covered in a book edited by our colleague Michael Faure and Elena Kantorowicz-Reznichenko (Erasmus University Rotterdam), published with Cambridge University Press.
You can also read this short blog.
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Today, a blog by Niels Philipsen was published as a Faculty of Law blog. Earlier this year, Mariolina Eliantonio, Sarah Schoenmaekers, Michael Faure (with Yu Yan) and Marjan Peeters also published in Law Blogs Maastricht.
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On Tuesday 2 February at 13:00, Mr Aka Firmin Yapo will defend his PhD thesis called "La protection des transports de marchandises par mer en droit ivoirien: sécurité de la marchandise et sûreté de la navigation."
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On 3 November, Gian Marco Solas (external research fellow at METRO) presented his book "Third Party Funding. Law, Economics and Policy" (Cambridge University Press) to a select audience of EU law and international litigation and arbitration specialists.
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METRO is happy to announce the following four PhD defenses, all taking place in the Autumn of 2020:
- 7 October, 16:00: Georges Akoa
- 14 October, 12:00: Constantijn van Aartsen
- 28 October, 16:00: Sandra Nobrega
- 12 November, 10:00: Abasse OlossoumareMore information about these defenses can be found on the website of the UM Faculty of Law.
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In March 2020 the UM/METRO report Aansprakelijkheid voor het laten werken met HDI op POMS locaties (liability for letting people work with HDI at POMS locations) was published by RIVM. This report is part of a series of eight reports related to research on HDI from CARC at POMS locations of the Ministry of Defense. For more info (in Dutch) see the RIVM website.
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On 6 December 2019, a delegation of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) visited METRO, to discuss digital governments, government information disclosure and economics of regulation.
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PhD thesis written by Shuo Li.
Competition law gained a lot of attention all over the world because of its natural relation to economy and market. With the background that the pace of globalization nowadays is faster than ever before, this research will focus on the internationalization of competition law, including basic concepts, historical development, present situation and future possibilities of international competition law. -
While in Beijing teaching Competition Law at the China-EU School of Law (with Caroline Cauffman) from 4-8 November, Niels Philipsen gave guest lectures at the CUPL School of Law and Economics and at the Central University of Finance and Economics. Also in November, Marjan Peeters was invited to give a lecture at National Taipei University in Taiwan.
Social media
Click here to follow METRO @ Facebook
Ius Commune Research School
METRO facilitates the Ius Commune Research School, a cooperation between the law faculties of the Universities of Maastricht (UM), Utrecht (UU), Amsterdam (UvA), and Leuven (K.U. Leuven), focused on the realization of a Ius Commune in Europe. Management and secretariat of the Research School are located at METRO, and METRO oversees the Ius Commune Casebooks and publishes the Ius Commune Europaeum Books.
MUCorpLab
The Maastricht University Corporate Laboratory (MUCorpLab), part of the METRO Institute, focuses on innovation in research and teaching in the area of corporate law, with a particular focus on corporate finance law.
Technology will change the future of corporate law – we are here to change.
Within the next ten to fifteen years, technology will change drastically the business environment in the corporate legal industry. These developments will alter the ways in which law firms and in-house counsel will function, it will affect how legal research is conducted, the way in which legal documents are drafted and the overall management of these processes. Such change will not only have an impact on the legal industry but also more broadly on the functioning and purpose of legal rules.
Together with its partners, MUCorpLab’s mission statement is to become a front-runner in contributing to exploring and experimenting with legal solutions in this area.
Coupling corporate expertise with a 25-year track record in law and economics as well as comparative legal research, MUCorpLab offers a strong methodologically framework that takes into account economic realities as well as important differences between jurisdictions based on language, culture and socio-economic background.
The MUCorpLab consists, inter alia, of the Corporate Finance Law Honours Track and CorpDocEX.
Michael Faure
“We perform research on assignment for the Dutch government as well. After the firework disaster in Enschede, the ministry of interior asked us to examine a more adequate, fair and fast compensation to victims.”
Marjan Peeters
“Environmental law is a very complex field. It concerns many different environmental problems. Furthermore, there are many forms in which the behaviour of citizens and companies may be regulated. The main question is: how will you go about it? A lot of research is being conducted on these issues.”
Niels Philipsen
“In our research, we often employ methods derived from law and economics. Efficiency is a central concept in economics, but it is important also to make explicit the trade-offs between efficiency and other social values such as fairness, non-discrimination and income distribution.”
Agenda
Blogs
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This blog includes a brief description of a METRO seminar held on 30 May 2022, where a draft research design of FullCompensation was shared for feedback. This seminar was the first scientific deliverable of the project and set the ground for its further development.
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In its fining decision of 14 September 2021 regarding Samsung, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) imposed a fine of over EUR 39 mln on Samsung Electronics Benelux B.V. (Samsung) (the Decision). According to ACM, Samsung coordinated the retail prices of Samsung television sets together with various retailers by exercising undue influence on the online retail prices of television sets of seven retailers.
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Suppose that you get injured in an accident. In that case, you are entitled to damages. Damages are money that the injurer (or their insurer) must pay to you to make you ‘whole’. The aim of damages is, basically, to fully compensate you. Sounds easy? Believe me, it’s not!
