Latest blog articles
-
For more than 40 years now, the harmonisation and unification of the European patent law have been discussed. So far, the only European legal instrument regulating substantive patent matters is a European Patent Convention (EPC) signed in 1973. The EPC, however, is outside the EU’s legislative and...
-
Maastricht University is proud of its international character, and I am too. It is the most international university in (the small country) the Netherlands. Its teaching and research programs touch upon many European and global issues. Given this profile, travelling by staff and students was common...
-
Constructing a functioning single market for business and trade among the Member States of the European Union (EU) has been the cornerstone of the EU project, and remains one of the strongest drivers for EU-level legislative reform. Over the years, the EU has prioritized the harmonization of...
-
There has been substantial political debate over the last decade about the role of experts in policymaking. But how are these trends likely to develop in future? Drawing on a new edited volume, Vigjilenca Abazi, Johan Adriaensen and Thomas Christiansen set out four distinct scenarios concerning the...
-
Recent days have seen the meteoric rise and fall of the European Super League (ESL). This new league would have consisted of 15 founding clubs and 5 other clubs; the former consisting of ‘big clubs’ which could not be relegated and the latter in clubs who performed well over the past years on a...
-
Automated decision-making (‘ADM’) systems are algorithm decision-making tools, which issue either a partial or a full decision. While their use by national public administration is no new phenomenon, the European Union (‘EU’) has now also embraced this novel method of administrative decision-making.
-
Thank God for Judge Egidijus Kūris. In ECtHR ruling Ahmet Hüsrev Altan v. Turkey of 13 April, he showed that decontextualized analysis is not inherent to supranational judicial review. Once again saucing up his dissent with Bob Dylan, he asked “how many times can [the ECtHR] turn [its] head and...
-
When we think of cybersecurity we are generally concerned with the code, algorithms and systems that are responsible for the functioning of out digital technologies and the safety of our sensitive data. What has become increasingly apparent is the role of humans in ensuring the security of our...
-
Telegram is a powerful tool for end-to-end encrypted communication and one of the most popular messenger apps in Russia. However, one aspect often evades public attention: Telegram is swamped with bots which gather and disseminate personal data.
-
Recently there has been a strong wave of anti-China sentiments expressed in the media and within certain political circles, both in the United States and within the European Union. The Netherlands has been no exception to this.