Articles
Raworth’s Doughnut as a Compass for a Sustainable City? Lessons from the SUSA Initiative
In its Circular Strategy 2020-2025, Amsterdam relies on the Amsterdam City Doughnut developed by the British economist Kate Raworth. The model depicts an economy where societies and businesses contribute to economic development while respecting [...]
The shifting contours of property: ‘social function’ in the neoliberal era
‘Property', Alexis de Tocqueville wrote on the eve of the uprisings that shook Europe in 1848, ‘will be the great battlefield’. As the long shadow of the French Revolution sealed the demise of the [...]
Reimagining Extractive Capitalism: Learning from Italy’s Banca di Credito Cooperativo
The paradigm of contemporary business is extractive; it is oriented towards generating large profit margins from energy, resources, money, personal data, labour, health and well-being. Extractive capitalism presents us with a particular mentality in [...]
Thinking Infrastructurally About the Law of Multinational Corporations
“If the program of Realists was to lift the veil of legal form to reveal living essences of power and need, the program of the Critics is to lift the veil of power and [...]
Lessons about Lender Liability from Brazil
The recent use of the Lender Liability regime in Brazil by public prosecution can bring fresh ideas for Dutch lawmakers who want tighter controls over investment in socio-environmentally sensible activities. Public prosecutors use this [...]
Friends of the Earth Netherlands versus Royal Dutch Shell: All companies must act against climate change
The 26th of May 2021, the Court of First Instance of The Hague rendered a ground-breaking judgment in a climate case against the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell (RDS).[2] The Court ruled that RDS has [...]
Responsible or just compliant business conduct? On open norms and the example of ARISA v C&A
In his blog post summarizing the contents of the new Dutch Responsible Business Conduct strategy, Jurrien van Rees writes on the difficulties of turning due diligence into binding legal provisions:Due diligence should be appropriate to [...]
Down the rabbit hole of unequal opportunities: Achbita and the way out
Non-discrimination: Transformative contract law? From a broad social perspective, non-discrimination law is arguably the area of private law with the most sweeping transformative ambitions. This is reflected in the introduction to the EU’s Framework directive [...]
Sustainable Corporate Governance: The Role of the Law
One way to look at sustainable finance is through the lenses of corporate governance. 100 large companies worldwide are responsible for 71% of Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHGs). About one third of these are publicly held [...]
Responsible Business Conduct: Challenges and Opportunities
Responsible business conduct (RBC) is here to stay. There is a clear trend towards more binding RBC measures. Some countries have introduced thematic or sectoral due diligence legislation for specific RBC themes, such as forced [...]
Data as Counter-Performance and Transformative Contract Law
Within the framework of Transformative Private Law, a leading role must necessarily be recognized for Contract Law, traditionally both a receptor for social demands and an engine of economic innovations in an unceasing circular process. [...]
Transformative Property Law
Property’s transformative nature: Space mining, Airbnb, and Apartheid For the last few years, a new, innovative business model has been on the rise. It is called ‘space mining’ – digging for valuable resources in asteroids [...]
Unboxing Transformative Private Law
Private law is tasked with two antagonistic missions in modern society; that is to facilitate steady ordering while allowing for openness and the autonomous pursuit of highly pluralistic life plans. The solution to the [...]
The transformative role of courts in European private law
When we talk about transformative private law, an important question we should ask is: who are the drivers of transformation – private parties, legal scholars, legislatures, or the EU? This blog post revolves around [...]
Transformative Private Law as a Resource to Overcome Regulatory Shortcomings in the European Digital Market
Much debate arose regarding the role that private law is supposed to serve in the digital environment: the widespread of new technologies is almost unanimously understood as posing significant challenges to traditional concepts of law, [...]
The Transformative Private Law Blog: An Introduction
After months of hard work and preparation we welcome you to the Transformative Private Law blog. The transformative private law blog sets out to be a platform for the discussion, debating and (re)thinking of the [...]
The Idea of Transformative Private Law
During the recent Launch event of the Amsterdam Center for Transformative Private Law, we discussed the concept of Transformative Private Law. In what follows, I present the concept both as an analytical/critical project as well [...]
The Idea of Transformative Private Law: some critical observations
The transformation of the centre The recent transformation of the centre has been truly impressive. It was an excellent idea to widen horizons and pursue new themes. Moreover, the new mission statement is strong, ambitious [...]
Reflections on Transformative Private Law
What is the meaning of ‘transformative private law’? Or what does membership of a research group that has chosen this name entail? Here are some reflections of a member of the newly launched Amsterdam Centre [...]
Transformative Law in a Digital World from a Contract Law Perspective
On Valentine’s day, the Amsterdam Centre for Transformative Law (Act) was launched at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. According to its Mission Statement, it focuses on ‘the role of private law in the making of society, as well [...]