The Public-Private Challenge

Erasmus School of Law and the Faculty of Law of Groningen University have joined forces in the ‘The Public-Private Challenge’, addressing cross-cutting societal challenges across various levels of governance (local, national and international), across various disciplines (public and private law, economics, criminology), both empirical and doctrinal, and across various sectors (ecology, health, finance, technology) to guarantee an integrated approach to the study of public and private interests. 

Research & Impact

View our recent research projects, grants, publications, presentations and media appearances. 

Events

Visit one of our upcoming events in Rotterdam or Groningen and join the discussion.

Collaboration
Upcoming event

Law, AI, and Regulation (LAIR) Conference

We are pleased to announce our International Academic Conference on Law, AI, and Regulation. The conference will be held over two days in Rotterdam on 8 and 9 June 2023. A call for papers will be published in January 2023. Stay tuned! The conference is supported by Erasmus Graduate School of Law, Dutch Sector Plan: Rebalancing Public & Private Interests and Erasmus Center of Empirical Legal Studies, and Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence Digital Governance

Recent publications
European Union (EU), illiberal governments attempt to dilute institutional and non-institutional checks and balances with the aim to unrestrainedly exercise the state power. In this context, civil society, a sphere autonomous from the state where public interests are being expressed and formulated, is constantly undermined. This article tries to illustrate the relation between civil society and the rule of law and its backsliding. In this regard, a theoretical framework indicating the connections of the dominant civil society theories with core rule of law elements will be developed and the points of friction with rule of law backsliding will be indicated. This theoretical framework will, then, be tested in EU institutional practice through the examples of the EU Annual Rule of Law Report and the case Commission v. Hungary (Transparency of Associations, C-78/18).

In: European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance 2022, 2, p. 187-209.

Abstract
Jurisdictions around the world are adjusting their insolvency laws with the aim to offer debtors in financial difficulties instruments that enable them to bring the company to a healthy state as soon as the problems arise. The rationale is that viable companies should have access to procedures that permit them to continue business, in whole or in part, by changing their capital structure as well as carrying out operational changes. Directors’ duties to creditors form a regular part of the laws concerning insolvency and therefore, a change in the insolvency laws will, arguably, have consequences for directors’ duties. In this paper, the impact of new preventive restructuring tools in the Netherlands and the UK on directors’ duties is discussed.

In: F. Allum, & S. Gilmour (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Transnational Organized Crime (2 ed.)

Abstract
Based on three case studies of transnational organized environmental crime, this chapter, on the one hand, aims to illustrate some direct and indirect harm caused by environmental black markets. On the other hand, it aims to critically assess the often artificial distinction between organized and corporate crime in environmental crimes. Since the 1990s, so-called green criminologists have critically studied the environment in the broadest sense of the word, focusing on various forms of environmental harm, crime and regulation, often drawing parallels between ecological and socioeconomic or political inequalities. Waste crime is the trade, treatment or disposal of waste in ways that breach international or domestic environmental legislation and cause harm or risk to the environment and human health. Wildlife crime is one of the areas that have long been recognized as a key environmental crisis. Many species, both big and small, are on the brink of extinction or have gone extinct because of trade and poaching.

In: European Journal of Comparative Law and Governance 2022, 2, p. 210-235.

Abstract
Consumer protection directly influences the design of choice of law rules in the EU. Article 6 Rome I Regulation stipulates that the law of the consumer’s habitual place of residence applies, unless another law has been chosen. This choice may not deprive the consumer of certain rules of her “home law”, however. This likely requires a comparison of the involved laws, putting the foreseeability of the parties’ legal rights in jeopardy. Such comparison also raises issues for the public, as it decreases administrability (measured by the amount of work necessary to apply a conflict rule) and hence increases costs for the courts. Through comparative analysis between Article 6 Rome I and the latter’s different interpretations, this article investigates how consumer protection affects the administrability and foreseeability of choice of law rules. It is shown how simple changes to Article 6 Rome I could increase administrability and foreseeability for all involved stakeholders.

In: M. Krygier, A. Czarnota, & W. Sadurski (Eds.), Anti-Constitutional Populism (pp. 336-365). Cambridge University Press. Cambridge Studies in Law and Society

Abstract
This chapter analyses the ongoing constitutional crisis in Poland and its ideological background. In 2015, the right-wing party Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) won the parliamentary elections. Since then, the political system has experienced a period of rapid institutional changes. The scope, depth and type of these changes indicate that Poland is not dealing with just a crisis, but rather a systemic transformation, which is taking place without formally amending or changing the Constitution. The changes in question (which are commonly perceived as going beyond the principles of the rule of law and liberal constitutionalism) concern, among other things: the procedures and composition of the Constitutional Court, the method of appointment and disciplinary liability of the judges, and the structure and functioning of the Supreme Court and the prosecutor’s office. Institutional changes were accompanied by public discourse, in which PiS politicians alleged that the judges in Poland were corrupt, questioned the primacy of EU law over national law and warned against both external (refugees) and internal (LGBT community) threats to the Christian religion, traditional family model and Polish national identity. The changes also went hand-in-hand with extensive social policies.

News

Call for papers: justice in international investment law in post-ISDS world: is the world without investment arbitration, a world with(out) justice?

Is the world without investment arbitration, a world with(out) justice? Investor-State Dispute...

“Mixity in Private and/or Public Law” Conference in Malta, 14-16 June 2023

On 14-16 June 2023, the 5th World Congress of the World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists...
28th Annual Meeting of the Common Core in Groningen

28th Annual Meeting of the Common Core in Groningen

The University of Groningen is proud to host the 28 th  Annual Meeting of the Common Core of...
Workshop ‘Populism, Non-State Actors and Legal Mobilization in Europe’

Workshop ‘Populism, Non-State Actors and Legal Mobilization in Europe’

Date: 22nd of March 2023  Location: European University Institute, Florence  Organizers:...
Gendered Dynamics of Environmental Crime

Gendered Dynamics of Environmental Crime

On Wednesday 21 September 2022, the seminar “Environmental Crime & Gender” took...
Call for Papers: ‘SUMMER ACADEMY Law and Political Economy in Europe’

Call for Papers: ‘SUMMER ACADEMY Law and Political Economy in Europe’

The Law and Political Economy (LPE) in Europe Network invites applications for its first Summer...
Call for Papers: ‘Digital Technologies, Public Policy and Competition Law’

Call for Papers: ‘Digital Technologies, Public Policy and Competition Law’

On 1 and 2 June 2023, the “Digital Technologies, Public Policy and Competition Law”...
Dr. Ioannis Kampourakis, awarded grant by Partners for a New Economy

Dr. Ioannis Kampourakis, awarded grant by Partners for a New Economy

Dr Ioannis Kampourakis and Dr Anna Chadwick (University of Glasgow) were awarded a grant of €193,000...
Third call for applications for the Small Grants Scheme of the sector plan of Erasmus School of Law opened!

Third call for applications for the Small Grants Scheme of the sector plan of Erasmus School of Law opened!

The call is open to ESL researchers planning activities such as, collecting or generating data...

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University of Groningen
Faculty of Law
Oude Kijk in ‘t Jatstraat 26
9712 EK Groningen
The Netherlands

Erasmus University Rotterdam
Erasmus School of Law
Burgemeester Oudlaan 50
3062 PA Rotterdam
The Netherlands

sectorplan@law.eur.nl

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