We are quickly learning that living through interesting times comes close to being a curse. Those of us who are lucky not to be at the wrong end of the different unfolding catastrophes feel nonetheless that all that was solid is rapidly melting into thin air. There are many reasons to worry and [...]
Introduction Human rights are not merely moral, political or legal – they combine aspects of all three. Human rights law mostly recognises such rights vis-à-vis the modern state in the international legal instruments and the national constitutions, which may be called as “the default verticality” (Bhatia, 2023). During the period of Enlightenment to [...]
Why is the space for critical legal engagements within EU law so narrow, almost non-existant? Critical legal engagements openly question the underpinnings of EU legal thinking showing how its inner logics reproduce various forms of inequalities and power asymmetries. They don’t primarily seek to reform the law. Their main focus is laying bare the [...]
This blog was featured earlier on the N-EXTLAW project website Since first bursting on the scene in Italy in the late 1980s, the notion of the 'social enterprise' has spread to nearly every corner of the globe. In recent years, many jurisdictions have accommodated and stimulated this expansion by introducing legal frameworks for [...]
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 a company’s circumstances and can be adapted to deal with the limitations of working with business relationships. On the [...]
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 labour and exploitation (including child labour) or for specific sectors (e.g. timber and minerals). Examples include the UK Modern [...]
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 the transformative role of the judiciary in European private law, which is also the topic of a recently published [...]