Insights From Commissioner-designate hearings on the Future of EU Policy: Trade, Sanctions, Digital, and Enlargement The confirmation of the new European Commissioners by the European Parliament (EP) has been postponed due to disagreements between the two largest political groups, the S&D and EPP. Despite the delay, all Commissioner-designates have presented their views and priorities on […]
Public Resistance and External Pressure as Substitutes for Effective Judicial Oversight The parliamentary election in Georgia on 26 October 2024 resulted in the ruling Georgian Dream party being declared the winner by the Central Elections Commission (CEC), with nearly 54% of the vote. However, independent observers identified a large-scale, multi-faceted election-rigging scheme in favor of […]
Rubén Díez García (Professor in the Department of Applied Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid) The Berlin Wall, built in 1961, was more than just a physical barrier: it was a symbol that separated two worlds and competing political ideologies. This ideological division also fuelled conflict within liberal democracies themselves. On the eastern side, […]
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (“DMCC”) Act is finally now law in the UK. The King signed his assent today (although his views on conflicts of interest in the ad tech stack are still unknown). The legislation was passed in the “wash-up” process on the final day of this Parliament and the country is […]
The European Commission has finally disclosed its intention to challenge the Apple judgement delivered by the General Court on the 15th of July. Although it has been a difficult choice, considering the highly political implications of the matter, the Commission’s resolve is strategically sound as it offers the Court of Justice the possibility to correct the […]
Guest post by Laura Bakola (PhD candidate at Leiden University) In September the CJEU issued a judgment on price indications and the obligation of the trader to announce a price reduction on the basis of the ‘prior price’ of the product. The case comes after the amendment introduced by Directive 2019/2161, as regards the better […]
The Backstop(s) The initial EU proposal included in the first draft Withdrawal Agreement provided that Northern Ireland would remain within the EU customs territory. Of course, remaining in the EU customs territory and in parts of the single market while the rest of the UK was out of those structures is anathema to many, not least the DUP. […]
While the EU remains committed to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, for the rest of the world they’re simply unrealistic. Can the EU balance sustainable growth with environmental, social and labour rights through trade deals that are driven by corporate social responsibility? As early as 2007, the EU cited its commitment to ‘peace, security, the […]
The UK might have left the European Union on 31 January 2020, but it has not left its gravitational field, nor will it in 2021. The challenge for all sides is somehow to stabilise British exceptionalism outside the EU’s legal order, writes Martin Westlake (LSE/College of Europe). Those on the ‘remain’ side of the Brexit argument, […]
Image by M. H. from Pixabay In the first part of this post on the Kneschke vs. LAION decision by the German Hamburg Regional Court (“Court”), we explored the Court’s key findings regarding the operational step in a generative AI model, and the decision on the exceptions for scientific research text and data mining (“TDM”) […]