A Climate Policy Under Fire: Germany’s NECP Lawsuit and EU Climate Governance
The Environmental Action Germany (Deutsche Umwelthilfe, ‘DUH’), a non-governmental environmental and consumer protection organisation in Germany, has intensified its legal challenges against the German government by filing a lawsuit over...
EU accession to the ECHR – a short reflection post-CJEU judgment in EU LEX KOSOVO Joined Cases C-29/22 P and C-44/22 P (KS and KD)
Article 6(2) of the 2009 Lisbon Treaty EUR-Lex – 12008M006 – EN establishes the following obligation: “The Union shall accede to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights...
Now that the AI Act has been politically agreed, what’s next? …. Harmonised European Standards.
I have been working on behalf of Equinet, which holds liaison status in the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) Joint Technical Committee...
Business and Human Rights: A Cautious and Promising Interpretation of the French Vigilance Law
In rulings issued on 18 June 2024, the Paris Court of Appeal deemed admissible the actions brought by several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) against the French multinationals TotalEnergy and EDF on...
The Right to Water in the European Blue Deal: A New Constitutional Challenge
There is a narrow catalogue of goods and values which represent fundamental importance for human survival, dignity and protection of life; consequently, these should be guaranteed and respected within international...
Beyond Bogus Self-Employment: the EU Platform Work Directive’s Presumption of Employment, and its Implications for the Future of Employment Rights in the Gig Economy
On 11 March 2024, the European Union’s employment and social affairs ministers voted to adopt the Platform Work Directive (‘PWD’). First proposed by the Commission in December 2021, the Directive...
Waiting for Godot No More: The Climate Crisis and the New European Asylum Pact
To many born in the 1990s, climate change was akin to Godot: the figure conjured by Beckett whose influence was omnipresent, but whose appearance, anticipated as it was, never came...
Greece Achieves Marriage Equality: What About Full Parental Rights for LGBTQI Persons?
LGBTQI rights are far from being universally accepted. On 16 February 2024, a new bill for LGBTQI rights was voted by the Greek Parliament allowing same-sex couples to marry and...
AI and Global Development: The Role of Economic and Social Rights
As policymakers in the Global North prepare to introduce binding horizontal AI regulation, increasing attention is also being paid to the promises and pitfalls of AI for developing countries. Although...
How can we guard against AI-generated discrimination?
One of the most commonly expressed concerns about AI systems is their capacity to produce unfairly discriminatory outputs and decisions. Well-known examples abound: for instance, in healthcare, AI-enabled decision support...
La Belgique criminalise l’écocide: une (imparfaite) première européenne
Le 22 février 2024, la Belgique a marqué l’histoire en adoptant un nouveau code pénal criminalisant l’écocide dans son droit interne. Il s’agit de la première fois qu’une telle interdiction...
Belgium Recognises the Crime of Ecocide: A (Lukewarm) European First
On 22 February 2024, Belgium made history by adopting a new penal code that criminalises ‘ecocide’ at the national level. This marks the first time that such a domestic prohibition...
