Latest blog articles

  • How to make surfboards: a checklist for our future graduates

    “What kind of skills do we want our graduates to have?” was the main topic of discussion during a recent staff meeting, which got me thinking.

    As the faculty of law, perhaps the “right” answer would entail something along the lines of: “Our graduates need to be capable of arguing logically, writing...

    surfboard_LBM
  • Ecuador Earthquake: What lawyers can do

    On Saturday 16 of April an earthquake struck Ecuador. At 7.8 on the Richter scale, it levelled various towns of the province of Manabí, in particular Pedernales, Manta and Portoviejo. At current estimates, it has killed more than 500 persons. Many of them died a slow death, after days of being...

    Ecuador Earthquake: What lawyers can do
  • Extraterritorial human rights obligations to protect refugees

    It took quite a while before the European countries realized and recognized that the influx from asylum-seekers via the Mediterranean Sea and Turkey into the European Union is not just a matter of controlling the outside borders of the Union, but also a humanitarian and human rights issue. Some...

    refugees_skala_sykamias_lesvos_greece
  • How I stopped worrying about asylum seekers

    In a short memo, published on 22 March, the Dutch Liberal Party (VVD) expressed its view on how to handle the increasing number of asylum claims in the Netherlands, and more broadly in the EU, as well as the continuously tragic events concerning refugees that occur at the external borders of the EU...

    Trapped in despair: ‘The Great Escape’ in the Mediterranean