Many Right(-wing) Choices
No reason to breathe a sigh of relief.
Articles for category: English Articles
National Human Rights Institutions – Critical but, Overlooked Actors
National Human Rights Institutions are a critical but often overlooked actor in the context of the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. As we enter the transposition and implementation phases, National Human Rights Institutions can leverage their unique mandate as human rights experts in their jurisdictions to act collectively and individually to ensure that transposition laws meet human rights standards for an effective implementation.
Follow Me to Unregulated Waters!
In this article, I will demonstrate how some major platforms are failing to properly implement the Digital Service Act's (DSA) rules on notice and action mechanisms. In my view, many platforms are unduly nudging potential notice-senders to submit weak, largely unregulated Community Standards flags. At the same time, platforms are actively deterring users from submitting (strong) notices regulated under the DSA.
A Comparative Analysis between the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and the French and German Legislation
This blog post offers an initial comparative glimpse of the most important changes that the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) will bring for the respective mandatory human rights and environmental (HREDD) legislation in Germany and France. While both the French Duty of Vigilance Law and the German Supply Chain Act already require effective HREDD, the CSDDD goes a long way in strengthening the requirements and bringing them more in line with international standards.
The Electoral Reform in New Caledonia as a Blessing in Disguise
The constitutional amendment recently examined by the French Parliament would allow French citizens, residing in New Caledonia for at least ten years, to take part in local elections. Prompted by President Macron, this electoral reform has led to massive riots in recent weeks involving supporters and opponents of independence for this territory of the French Republic. Local representatives fear that this reform will place the Kanak – the archipelago’s autochthonous people – in an even more inferior position vis-à-vis loyalist militants. Nevertheless, this reform should guarantee better representation of the population of New Caledonia and thereby guarantee the right to vote more widely, in line with the democratic principles of the French Republic.
Administrative Enforcement of Corporate Human Rights Due Diligence Legislation
Mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation such as the new EU’s Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDDD) have received praise and critique in practice and scholarship. This contribution assesses the regime of administrative enforcement contained in the CSDDD and asks if it meets the standards of effective remedy.
ITLOS and the importance of (getting) external rules (right) in interpreting UNCLOS
The Advisory Opinion handed down by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on 21 May 2024 is truly remarkable. However, while ITLOS succeeded in noting the relevance of many other treaties and customary norms in international law, it fell short of a comprehensive and consistent approach to determining which other treaty norms would be relevant to the interpretation of UNCLOS and how. Establishing coherence by “taking into account external rules” means more than a general reference or a pick-and-choose approach to some relevant norms in an external treaty, while not to others.
On Kanaks and Caldoches
Over the past week, the French electoral reform in New Caledonia precipitated into violent unrest. Although the French government lifted the state of emergency on Tuesday morning, in an attempt to initiate a process of de-escalation and to renew the dialogue with the independence movement, the reform will eventually move forward. Henceforth, France will further entrench its influence in the South Pacific and effectively deny the Kanak people to achieve their desired self-determination.
Untying the Gordian Knot
Much like Alexander the Great’s “untying” of the mythical Gordian Knot in ancient Persia, tracking defamation litigation in this year’s US Presidential election season would appear to not only require formal legal training, but resort to some fairly unconventional tactics. But rather than slicing the metaphorical knot with brute force (as legend has it), this article shines a modest but revealing light on the history and principles of US defamation law to assist foreign jurists with its many technicalities and often perplexing uses.
The Unbearable Lightness of Interfering with the Right to Privacy
The European Court of Justice has once again ruled on national data retention laws. In La Quadrature du Net II, the full court allowed the indiscriminate retention of IP addresses for the purpose of fighting copyright infringement. It seems that the Court is slowly but surely abandoning its role as guardian of the right to privacy, as it now allows member states to collect vast amounts of data on their citizens in order to solve even the most minor of crimes.
