How European Leaders’ Obsequiousness Threatens Europe’s Security and Undermines International Law Reflecting on the June 24-25 NATO summit in The Hague – one day after the 80th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter –, it is difficult not to be overwhelmed by a sense of failure and depression. During the NATO Summit, the…
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40 years since Portugal joined the European Union(or about Constante’s refusal to jump, the dog from José Saramago’s “The Stone Raft”) Pedro Madeira Froufe [Editor of this blog and Coordinator of the Group “Studies in European Union Law” (CEDU), of JUSGOV – Research Centre for Justice and Governance, University of Minho)] I Forty years ago,…
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Yesterday, the CJEU issued a new judgment in the Swiss franc mortgage loans and their unfair contract terms saga, following a referral from a Polish court, in the case known as Lubreczlik (C-396/24). The referral was based on two cases, in which consumers concluded mortgage loans indexed to the Swiss franc rate. In both cases consumers claimed…
NATO’s bold call to boost both military muscle and civil resilience sets the new standard for 21st-century defence. With NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s proposal to boost military spending to 3.5% of GDP – alongside an additional 1.5% allocated to societal resilience and infrastructure – the alliance signals a renewed commitment to defending not just territory,…
Image generated by ChatGPT using DALL·E, OpenAI, 2025. Prompt: “In a professional office, a humanoid robot and two human colleagues are engaged in a conversation about AI and copyright, in the style of a New Yorker cartoon. The role of copyright rules in the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to dominate legal discussions in…
On June 18, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas vacated the HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy (the “Final Rule”) issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) under the Biden Administration. The Final Rule had amended the HIPAA Privacy Rule to limit the…
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Last week, the UN working group on business and human rights officially presented its thematic report on the procurement and deployment of artificial intelligence systems by States and businesses (A/HRC/59/53, 14 May 2025 — note there is also an executive summary infographic). The report focuses on actions to be taken to facilitate alignment of AI…
[If you do use the blog for research, practice submission or database purposes, citation would be appreciated, to the blog as a whole and /or to specific blog posts. Many have suggested I should turn the blog into a paid for, subscription service however I have resisted doing so. Proper reference to how the blog…
The European Union (EU) aims to reduce, and eventually eradicate poverty. It is the world’s largest donor of development aid. In 2023, the EU and its member countries provided €95.9 billion for official development assistance to support long-term economic, social, environmental and political development around the world. EU development aid policies The EU is committed to…
Read More “How does the EU support development in the world? | Epthinktank” »
Regulation 883/2004 on the harmonisation of social security systems in the EU was drafted, at least in part, to mitigate any potential negative consequences that the utilisation of free movement rights could have on access to social security. The Regulation serves to establish the competent Member State for the provision of social security benefits such…
Read More “some thoughts on the Simkova case · European Law Blog” »
