Academic
1 December 2017 the Netherlands Institute for Law and Governance (NILG) will host its annual conference. This year’s theme is The Future of Law & Technocratic Regulation by Standardisation, Certification, Accreditation & Normalisation (‘SCAN’). My talk at the conference will concern the potential of standards-development organisations to be held liable for their regulatory activities. The programme and abstracts can be downloaded here NILG conference webpage
The highest German court in civil matters, the Bundesgerichtshof, has denied a damages claim brought by a woman who received PIP breast implants against the certification body that was involved in the inspection of PIP production facilities TÜV Rheinland. This final judgment comes after the European Court of Justice of the EU had offered guidance to the Bundesgerichtshof as regards the scope of the inspection obligations TÜV Rheinland had under the applicable EU rules. For now,
I am happy to announce that I will be a visiting academic at the Institute of European and Comparative Law (IECL) at Oxford University. My stay is scheduled in the fall of 2018 and has the purpose to review English case law and literature on the liability of (private) regulators. IECL Academic Visitor programme
Guest lecture Prof. Marc Loth This week Marc Loth, Professor of Tort Law at Tilburg Law School, offers his account of the development of climate change liability. Climate change indeed is one of the global challenges for tort law. While in the US several of such liability claims were brought to the courts,they all have failed. At a moment when everyone in favor of climate change liability had almost lost hope, the District Court of
New EU rules to ensure safety of medical devices Brussels, 5 April 2017 The European Parliament and Council of Ministers adopted two new Regulations replacing the old Directive on Medical Devices (Dir. 93/42/EEG). The new rules cover medical devices and in vitro diagnostic medical devices, which include simple contact lenses and sticking plasters to sophisticated pacemakers and hip replacements. People rely on these devices every day and expect them to be safe and incorporate the latest progress in science
PIP Case on the Cause List on June 22nd The German Bundesgerichtshof announced on March 29th that the hearings in the case between Schmitt and TÜV Rheinland will be held on June 22nd. These hearing are planned after the Court of Justice of the European Union answered the questions raised by the German court through a preliminary reference procedure (Case C-219/15) in its decision of February 16th. Read the press release of the Bundesgerichtshof Read the decision
General Court too slow in delivering judgements On January 10th, the General Court gave its first-ever damages award in the Gascogne case (T-577/14) for delayed proceedings within its own chambers. This decision was appealed by both the defendant (the EU) and the plaintiff (Gascogne). In the meantime, the Gascogne decision was confirmed by the Court’s rulings in Kendrion v. European Union (T-479/14 of 1 February 2017) and ASPLA v. European Union (T-40/15 of 17 February 2017). In