1. New Classification List of Public Companies for Foreign Investment Review On May 8, the Japanese authorities published a list of publicly-listed companies that are subject to prior examination for direct investments by foreign investors under the newly amended Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act (the “FEFTA”). The subject companies are classified into three categories:…
As the COVID-19 pandemic engulfs the world, requiring an unprecedented and, as of yet, unforthcoming global response, the idea of Brexit, the sheer self-indulgence and chicanery of Brexit, has quickly become remote from the minds of policy makers and peoples alike. Nevertheless, with negotiations on ‘forging a new partnership’ between the EU and the UK…
The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (‘CISG’) epitomises the UNCITRAL’s endeavour to progressively unify and harmonise commercial law across the boundaries of nation-states. While the mere adoption and wide acceptance of the CISG are milestones in and of themselves, we should also not overlook the rich body of the…
Foodora Leaves Canada The pandemic of 2020 is a demarcation point that will take some time to understand. In the midst of such profound changes to daily life, labour law remains one background to these challenges. After its riders in the Canadian province of Ontario won a challenge to their union certification on 28 February…
Introduction The landmark decision in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India paved the way for protection of privacy including informational privacy by granting fundamental rights status to privacy rights. The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 (“PDPB”) aims to protect privacy by establishing a mechanism to regulate and control the processing of personal data. The…
Jeremias Adams-Prassl, Antonio Aloisi, Nicola Countouris, Valerio De Stefano In late April 2020, the Court of Justice of the EU handed down an order in response to a request for a preliminary ruling on working time protection from a UK employment tribunal. The case dealt with the distinction between genuine self-employed persons excluded from…
The devastating effects of COVID-19 on national healthcare systems and the economy worldwide have unveiled the shortcomings of efficiency driven policies and the drawbacks of globalization. But before one can stop, wonder, assess and decide how to improve the ability to react promptly to future pandemic threats and how to ensure adequate stocks of personal…
Nowadays, important decisions, previously left to humans, are delegated to algorithms, which may advise, if not decide, how personal data should be interpreted and what actions should be taken as a result. Business models driven by personal data or at least supported by processing of such data have become the rule and not the exception….
The year 2020 will be known forever as a historic breaking point. The corona crisis poses unprecedented challenges for policymakers, businesses and citizens around the world. Mankind is, as it were, being forced to adapt to these new living conditions in the very short term. They imply not only a new lifestyle, but also a…
The worldwide and fast spread of the corona virus and the Covid-19 disease gave momentum to homework for workers having office jobs. While information and communications technology allows workers to be available for work 24/7 the – mostly – abrupt decision of employers to put their staff on teleworking from home creates legal and practical…
Liberty is an essential part of life. Globalization has provided us with the freedom to move from nation to nation with ease, travelling widely. COVID-19 has had an unquestionably dramatic effect on the liberty of the global population to do so. So far, approximately 2.5 billion people have now been put into a form of…
1. Introduction The current COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the frontline many national law and policy issues, from the importance of national health systems to work security. Similarly, in the international arena the outbreak of COVID-19 has shown the fragility of global supply chains and global cooperation.[1] While appeals not to destroy supply chains abound,…
The novel coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak has managed to take the whole world by storm and disrupted the lives of millions across the globe. At the time of writing this post, The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic and has over three hundred thousand confirmed cases with over fourteen…
We all can see the impact of the coronavirus on labour markets in our daily lives: people stay at home, workers work remotely, if possible we keep social distance, businesses close (some temporarily and others definitively), travel is limited or impossible, there are quarantine measures. The reality of today gives an outlook of the labour…
It cannot be disputed that labour law has served and still serves as the institution that protects the dependent workforce. Yet labour law has also served the purpose to codify the authority of the employers over their employees while, in return, recognising them the entitlement to certain rights they can invoke against the employer itself….
Introduction The novel Covid-19 is spreading expeditiously through China and resultantly, U.S. and Australia have imposed a ban on travellers who have been through China in light of its safety and security concerns. WTO primarily regulates the goods and services and not the movement of persons however there is an increased probability of imposition of…
Introduction The definition of the territorial limits of the State of Israel is one of the main reasons behind the conflict in the Middle East, with consequences that often extend beyond the classic issues of international politics. As known, the last massive Israeli expansion occurred in 1967 with the Six-Day War and currently the Golan…
The adjustment that the UK will have to make to accommodate our post-Brexit global trade and security ambitions will involve enormous effort, ingenuity and change. No-one knows what the outcome will be. For almost 50 years, the UK was a member of the European Union. The UK’s trade policy was aligned to the Union in…
Whilst the EU-UK trade negotiations have barely commenced, one thing is already quite clear: the two sides are poles apart on the key issue of level playing field (LPF) provisions and the extent to which these should feature in a future EU-UK free trade agreement. The aim of these provisions, as originally set out in…
Reflecting on digitalization (as a collective term for artificial intelligence, robotization and new technologies) of the workplace draws out the confused intermingling of outcomes and ambitions. The aims of technological innovations entrench an economic understanding of efficiency, often at the expense of social considerations, which pose significant potential to displace human workers. These aims, as…
