It is August 26, 2015. A crucial day during the Conference of State Parties in Cancún, Mexico. 67 of the 69 member states of the Arms Trade Treaty vote for a location of the new Secretariat. Three candidate host states and their cities are bidding: Austria (Vienna), Switzerland (Geneva), and Trinidad and Tobago (Port of Spain). In the first round, Port of Spain wins with 32 votes, Geneva gets 21, and Vienna drops out with 14 votes. The second round, Geneva gets 35, scooping up all of Viennaâ...

Climate change poses tremendous legal challenges. The law is still largely unsettled. Seeing the global consequences of GHG emissions, many enterprises may face litigation before courts in multiple jurisdictions. The outcome of these cases is often hard to predict. It is in the best interest of humankind and the environment to create global obligations, for instance in the form of concrete obligations of States and enterprises, which can be applied by courts around the globe. Using a myriad o...

Robert Spano’s career at the Strasbourg Court is exceptional, as only three and a half years after his arrival, he was elected Section President, then Vice-President of the Court before taking up the post of President on 18 May 2020.

In his role, he has put his untiring energy at the service of the protection of human rights in Europe. While his qualities as a judge were known and appreciated by all his colleagues, as was his inexhaustible knowledge of case-law, during his term as Preside...

The Good Lives Model is an upcoming theoretical rehabilitation framework that is used increasingly in juvenile offender rehabilitation. This book provides in-depth knowledge about the Good Lives Model, its underlying theories, and how it differs from traditional rehabilitation methods. Furthermore it helps to gain a better understanding of the underlying causes of criminal behavior in juveniles, and the challenges they face in reintegrating into society. It combines state-of-the art theoretic...

This volume is a follow-up to the conference 'Constitutional Review and Democracy' organized from 24 to 25 November 2013 at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade. The conference was convened as part of the ongoing project 'Constitutionalism and Rule of Law in the Nation-State Building - the Case of Serbia'. The aim of this volume is to shed new light on the complex relation between democracy and judicial review of constitutionality. The book starts off with some general and theoretical a...

For the identity and well-functioning of Europe, independent national judiciaries are key, and the selection processes of judges and Court Presidents essential. During the last decade, however, several European Governments have been undermining this by trying to establish political control over national judges, especially through political dominance over the selection and appointment processes for judges and Court Presidents.

In his inaugural speech, Sterk addresses the topic of selection pro...

This book deals with the topic of shareholder democracy from a comparative point of view. Shareholders have important rights which they can exercise democratically at the general meeting. They have the power to control and supervise management of the company. The term shareholder democracy relates to the different ways in which shareholders can influence or even determine a company's course of life. One of the disadvantages of shareholder democracy is a risk that most democratic systems face ...

Designers solve problems. Ideas and problems change, however, and new techniques and materials are invented, new production methods are developed. Designing is a process of trial and error. During the development process, designers will think up solutions or part solutions for the problems that they have been presented with. They do not know if this solution will work. Therefore, they will try out their solution, for instance using a test model or a scale model: trial. Sometimes, the solution...

Can bankruptcy law offer debt relief to third parties who are not involved in a formal procedure themselves? This question is explored both in relation to guarantees and in relation to mass tort liability and has been a main topic of controversy recently in the US, arising in cases such as Purdue Pharma and the opioid crisis. Taken together, the answer to these questions will be decisive in the future scope of bankruptcy law and its relation to other fields of law. In their reports written fo...

In a growing number of countries, inquiries into past intercountry adoptions take place that identify systemic abuses and irregularities and conclude that adoption stakeholders encouraged or facilitated illegal intercountry adoptions. However, so far, the response from these stakeholders has been inadequate in addressing the profound human rights violations endured by those affected by illegal adoptions. Despite the growing movement of adoptees advocating for justice on behalf of themselves a...