Free movement of capital and sustainable forest management. The CJEU in...
Disclosure I represented the Flemish Region at the Court of Justice. I wrote this post on 11 December 2018. Given that the interpretation of the judgment has a bearing on the proceedings in the...
View ArticleInspection of SPS standards by ricochet. The CJEU on extra-EU enforcement of...
The CJEU (General Court) held in Case T-429/18 BRF SA et al v European Commission this week. I need to think a bit more about the implications of the judgment, particularly as I am keen to submit a...
View ArticleRequest for consultations under the Trade and Sustainable Devlopment chapter...
Update 16 January 2019 the first such trigger was quickly followed by a second: the EU have requested consultations with Ukraine over the country’s ban on the export of unprocessed woods. This is a...
View ArticleUS Iran sanctions renew the spotlight on the EU’s blocking regulation: A rare...
Ross Denton at Baker & McKenzie has a gem of a briefing on the EU’s ‘blocking Regulation’ and what it would mean in light of the US’ mooted sanctions on Iran. Steptoe had earlier also pondered the...
View ArticleWTO examiners: at ease! Canadian Supreme Court holds in R. v. Comeau (New...
Fellow faculty about to examine students on the Law of the World Trade Organisation, have their exam sorted (especially if it is an oral exam). In 2018 SCC 15 R v Comeau the Canadian Supreme Court held...
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Trading Together For Strong and Democratically Legitimized EU International...
I am happy to post here the link to the statement which I signed together with 62 colleagues from various walks of (trade) life, on the EU’s modus operandi for the signature of trade agreements....
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Is it me, or is it getting chilly? The EC and endocrine disruptors.
Do the newly negotiated EU rules on endocrine disruptors illustrate regulatory chill /the ‘freezing effect’ of international trade law? The new European Commission proposals on endoctrine disruptors...
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Neither extraterritoriality questions nor WTO concerns unsettle the CJEU....
The last part of this title is a bit of a stretch, apologies: soundbite beats nuance. I reported earlier on the High Court’s referral to the CJEU in the Cosmetics Regulation case, C-592/14 . The Court...
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Landmark judgment in the making. High Court refers to Luxembourg, demarcation...
How exactly is the EU bound by public international law? What is the justiciability of acts of foreign sovereign nations in EU courts? To what extent can an individual rely on customary or other...
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Belgium’s origin labelling of products from Israeli – occupied territories. A...
The Belgian Government has published its ‘notice to retailers concerning origin labelling of products from Israeli occupied territories’. The initiative got a lot of press, in Belgium at least, the...
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Not on my soil! The Council of the EU compromise on national vetoes to GMO...
The Council has published its first-reading position on a draft directive granting member states more flexibility to decide whether or not they wish to cultivate genetically modified organisms(GMOs) on...
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Now Denmark joins the nano notification fray.
Denmark has adopted its regime for notification preparations and products containing nanomaterials. (Belgium ‘s regime as far as I am aware has still not been finally adopted – it is not the kind of...
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Beggars can’t be choosers: has the EU’s GMO compromise outsourced moral...
The compromise (official minutes of the Meeting concerned reveal very little detail; more is available here) between the EU Member States on the market authorisation for GMOs has been condemned by...
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Fairphone: A trip to Ghana exposes challenges of both incoming and outgoing WEEE
Fairphone posted a blog piece on their recent trip to Ghana – thanks to Raluca Radu, a former student of mine, for keeping me updated. The piece and accompanying photos make very sober reading,...
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Rolex v Blomqvist. ECJ confirms irrelevance of ‘focus and target’ or...
After its withholding of mere accessibility of a site as a jurisdictional trigger for copyright infringement in Pinckney, the ECJ has now accepted that the mere acquisition of a good by a person...
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Belgian nano-register inches forward
I reported earlier on the delay incurred by the Belgian nano register. Following objections under the EU’s transparency Directive, the Belgian register stood still. The Belgian Government is now...
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RERA: a weee chance of US Basel ratification?
Many thanks to Gideon Kracov for pointing this out to me: the proposed Responsible Electronics Recycling Act (a private member’s Bill) would install an EU-type regime on the export of electric and...
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Be careful what you ask for. A first review of the WTO EU seals Panel.
After leaks, the Panel’s ruling in EU Seals is finally out. As it was only released this afternoon, I have not as yet had time to read it thoroughly. However diagonal reading reveals that by and large...
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Is something fishy in the State of Denmark? Faroe Islands WTO and UNCLOS...
Yummie. That’s how Trade lawyers and EU lawyers receive news of the Danish request for consultations with the EU, over at the WTO, on behalf of the Faroe Islands. A separate action is underway with...
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EC, UK et al comments on Belgian nano-register delay its roll-out. No...
The European Commission, the United Kingdom, The Czech Republic, Italy and Ireland have all issued detailed comments on the ‘nano register’ notified by Belgium. Belgium itself had summarised the draft...
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