Justin Lee J.D. Candidate, Columbia Law School, 2017 A referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership in the European Union (the Brexit referendum) is set to take place on June 23, 2016. Facing the rise of the anti-EU UK Independence Party and convincing predictions for a hung parliament, UK Prime Minister David Cameron had promised the Brexit referendum as part of his 2015 General Election campaign. Cameron led his Conservative Party to victory and become the second Prime Minister of the UK, only after Margaret Thatcher, to increase his party’s majority while in power. The Prime Minister, who is in the […]
CJEL
13 posts
Giacomo Bertolissi LL.M., Columbia Law School, 2016 Despite a general understanding that courts should respect the principle of separation of powers,[1] American justices have often been criticized for making policy judgments.[2] In the recent Obergefell case, Justice Scalia affirmed that “[t]oday’s decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court.” A similar criticism may be found in Italy. Even though Article 28 of the Legge 11 marzo 1953, n. 87 provides that the Italian Constitutional Court should refrain from interfering with the legislature’s discretion, the Italian […]
Elaine Sun J.D. Candidate, Columbia Law School, 2017 In recent years, land grabbing has become increasingly prevalent in Cambodia. The most extensive instances are economic land concessions (ELCs), whereby up to 10,000 hectares of government land per concession can be granted to private companies for agro-industrial exploitation for some fixed period of years, capped at 99 years. The 2001 Land Law of Cambodia also allows the government to expropriate private land from citizens for ELCs “in accordance with the provisions of the law,” and the Cambodian Constitution governs that expropriation “shall require fair and just compensation in advance.” In reality, […]
Juli Brauer J.D. Candidate, Columbia Law School, 2017 “If ever European solidarity needed to manifest itself, it is on the question of the refugee crisis. It is time to show collective courage and deliver this European response now.”[1] —Jean Paul Juncker, President of the European Commission Europe is currently in the process of implementing a new deal for EU-wide relocation of the refugees who have arrived in Italy and Greece in droves seeking asylum, primarily from a civil war in Syria. First proposed by the European Commission in Strasbourg on September 9, 2015, the plan aims to ease the burden weighing […]
Joanna Diane Caytas J.D. Candidate, Columbia Law School, 2017 Modern venture capital, at first invested by way of private equity, is a Swedish-American creation that started around WWI by ultra-high net worth families such as the Wallenbergs, Whitneys, Rockefellers, and Warburgs. Europe has always lagged significantly behind countries such as the United States[1] and Israel[2] with regards to transparent public markets. It has also never mustered commercial funding sources and government as well as legislative support for large-scale innovation finance, not to mention developed a comparable size and quality of market for risk capital. A recent EU initiative aims to […]
Aleksandra Pajic, Ph.D., LL.M. Lecturer in Securities Regulation, University of Saskatchewan Targeted development of the EU corporate governance framework is a timely and necessary move. The past few years have shown some serious shortcomings in corporate governance of EU companies. The lack of effective control mechanisms has contributed to excessive risk taking, and subsequently to failures of many financial and non-financial institutions. Those failures are associated with a set of factors: The lengthening of the investment chain; The increasing “short-termism” of the capital markets;[1] The remuneration of institutional investors based on the volume of assets they manage; The costs associated […]
Megan Elise Griffith J.D., Columbia Law School, 2016 For newcomers to any country, mundane issues, such as obtaining a new driver’s license, can become a time drain. Immigrants may find that they only need to bring documents to a local agency to exchange their “old” license for a new one. Unlucky immigrants, however, may need to take written and practical tests, or even fulfill a classroom requirement, to obtain the new host country license. The fundamental freedom of movement and mutual recognition have mitigated this issue for individuals moving between EU member states. However, member states’ regulations still vary considerably […]
Saso Kraner LL.M., Columbia Law School, 2015 Where collateral secures a contractual claim, a right in rem is created. This means it is not only enforceable between the parties to the loan agreement, but also against third parties. The purpose of a collateral arrangement is to protect the collateral taker against default risk relating to the collateral giver. In the event of default, the collateral taker can satisfy her claims using the delivered collateral. Collateral is used in different kinds of transactions. This post focuses on its use in financial transactions.
Mark Goldberg J.D. Candidate, Columbia Law School, 2015 Introduction Over the last two years, a vicious terror organization called Daesh (sometimes known as “Islamic State,” “ISIS,” or “ISIL”) arose amidst societal collapses in Iraq and Syria. Originally an al-Qaeda splinter group, Daesh has proven its resiliency and tenacity in many strategic campaigns. Daesh infamously uses social media to an unprecedented extent for a terror group. Daesh relies on the Internet to propagandize and recruit new jihadis. Its tactics continue to succeed: Gilles de Kerchove, the EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, estimates that at least 3,000 European nationals, swayed by recruiters, left the […]
Alex Weaver J.D. Candidate, Columbia Law School, 2016 Editor-in-Chief, Columbia Journal of European Law After five years of formal investigation, the European Commission announced today that it has sent a Statement of Objections to Google concerning its means of promoting Google Shopping results. The allegation derives from Google’s giant footprint in general online search, boasting a more than 90% market share.[1] By using this position to systemically favor its own comparison shopping service, Google, says the Commission, may be in violation of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. This Article prohibits the abuse of […]
Julian Beach J.D. Candidate, Columbia Law School, 2016 Traditionally, hostile takeovers between publicly traded companies weren’t viewed as the European way of doing business.[1] Recognized as a common form of corporate practice in the United States since the enactment of broad Federal legislation in the 1960’s, European regulators and business leaders did not turn their full attention to hostile takeovers until the late 1980s.[2] Since the 1990s, mergers and public tender offers specifically have become increasingly frequent, leading the European Commission in 2004 to enact both updated merger regulation and a Takeover Directive to tackle hostile activity.[3] However, substantive differences […]
Géraldine Babin LL.M., Columbia Law School, 2015 The 2014 Alstom controversy again brought to light the tension between EU merger control rules[1] and the desires of Member States to pursue their own industrial policy objectives. The French government, wanting to protect its national security interests, maneuvered to obtain significant changes to the deal between ailing French company Alstom and GE, after having clearly voiced its preference for a deal with the German company Siemens.[2] Former Competition Commissioner Kroes herself pointed out the “great ideological divide” that exists between industrial[3] and competition policies. The former stems from an interventionist approach justifying […]
Alex Weaver J.D. Candidate, Columbia Law School, 2016 Editor-in-Chief, Columbia Journal of European Law In the first issue of its 22nd volume, the Columbia Journal of European Law will publish a series of essays on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and surrounding negotiations. Here, the Editor-in-Chief frames the intra-European debate over investor-state dispute settlement. Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) has been at the center of a political debate which has threatened to derail negotiations of the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the US and EU. Proponents see this procedure, and the investment protection scheme behind it, as a […]