Irish Journal of European Law – Call for Papers for 2021 Volume

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The Editorial Board of the Irish Journal of European Law has issued the Call for papers for its 2021 Volume:

Irish Journal of European Law – Call for papers for 2021 volume

The Irish Journal of European Law has been published since 1992 and is a leading international journal on European law, edited by scholars and practitioners. Previous volumes are hosted on Westlaw, HeinOnline and on the Irish Society for European Law’s website. The journal – whose articles are blind peer reviewed – is now issuing a call for original papers for its 2021 volume. Papers are welcomed in the following categories:

  • Long articles (indicative length 8,000 – 12,000 words)*
  • Shorter articles and analysis (indicative length up to 6,000 words)*
  • Professional practice pieces, addressing areas of European law and/or practice that would be of particular interest to practitioners (any length)
  • Notes on case law (indicative length 2,000-3,000 words)**
  • Notes on legislation (any length)

The journal welcomes submissions on all areas of European law, including EU law and European law in the wider sense.

The journal has an international reputation and attracts contributions from scholars, practitioners, judges and public servants (writing in a personal capacity) from across Europe and beyond. Submissions are welcomed from established scholars, early career researchers, students, and practitioners.

Please send submissions for consideration by the editorial board to ijel.submissions@gmail.com by 5pm on Friday 26th March 2021 in Word format, size 12 font, single-spaced. References should be in OSCOLA Ireland format and please use footnotes rather than endnotes. Please attach two separate files: the first comprising a cover page with your name, affiliation, contact details, five or so keywords, and the title and abstract for your article, and the second comprising your full article with no personal identifiers (for blind peer review purposes). Please direct any queries to the same email address.

 

*Inclusive of footnotes

**Longer pieces will be considered in appropriate cases

 

New Editorial Board of Irish Journal of European Law Announced

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The ISEL is delighted to announce the new Editorial Board of the Irish Journal of European Law (IJEL), which is published under the auspices of the ISEL.

The members are:

– Editor in Chief: Dr MaryCatherine LUCEY, Associate Professor, UCD Sutherland School of Law
– General Editor: Dr Andrew Jackson, Assistant Professor, UCD Sutherland School of Law
– Managing Editor: Dr Stuart MacLennan, Associate Professor, Law School, Coventry University
– Long Articles Editors: Dr Graham Butler, Associate Professor of Law, Aarhus University & Dr Sara Drake, Senior Lecturer in Law, Cardiff University / Prifysgol Caerdydd
– Shorter Articles Editors: Barry Doherty BL & Dr Noreen O’Meara, Senior Lecturer, University of Surrey
– Archives Editor: Dr Liz Heffernan, Associate Professor, Trinity College Dublin
– Professional Practice Editors: Benedict Blunnie, Legal Advisor at Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Maureen O’Neill, MON Legal Consulting and Siobhán Stack SC
– Caselaw Editors: Sara-Jane O’Brien BL & Kelly Stricklin-Coutinho, Barrister at 39 Essex Chambers
– Legislation Editors: Dr Ronan Condon, Assistant Professor in Law, Dublin City University & Conor Talbot, Legal Counsel at the European Investment Bank (EIB)

We wish the new editorial board the very best of luck.

ISEL’s 2020 AGM – 25 November 2020, at 5pm

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The ISEL’s 2020 AGM is taking place online via Zoom at 5pm on Wednesday, 25 November 2020.

Join the AGM here:

https://zoom.us/j/91562370035?pwd=NlVNZmU1eUIrR2tCanNuQ29GeEtiQT09

Meeting ID: 915 6237 0035
Passcode: 024848

 

Please note that any personal data submitted will be processed in accordance with ISEL’s Privacy Notice available here.

ISEL may also share your personal data with third parties for the purpose of hosting / facilitating.

 

XXIX FIDE Reports Published

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The XXIX FIDE Congress in The Hague was due to take place in May 2020.  Due to COVID-19, the Congress will now take place in May 2021.  In the meantime, the 2020 FIDE Board has published the XXIX FIDE Congress volumes, which include all national reports, including those prepared by the Irish national rapporteurs.  These are available through the links below:

Topic 1: National Courts and the Enforcement of EU Law: The Pivotal Role of National Courts in the EU Legal Order

Topic 2: The New EU Data Protection Regime: Setting Global Standards for the Right to Personal Data Protection

Topic 3: EU Competition Law and the Digital Economy: Protecting Free and Fair Competition in an Age of Technological (R)evolution

The reports provide valuable comparative perspectives on these three topics of key areas of EU Law, which will be explored in depth at the XXIX Congress at The Hague next year. This will be a great opportunity to discuss recent developments, from the German Constitutional Court’s Weiss judgment to the consequences of COVID-19 on the protection of personal data and the platform industry.

The reports prepared by the Irish National Rapporteurs are available here .

XXIX FIDE Congress postponed to 2021

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The XXIX FIDE Congress was due to take place in The Hague in May 2020.  Due to restrictions on public events in the Netherlands necessitated by COVID-19, the Congress will now be held, in The Hague, from 12 to 15 May 2021.  All registrations for the Congress remain valid.

Irish Journal of European Law – Publication of Volume 22

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The ISEL is delighted to announce that Volume 22 of the Irish Journal of European Law (2019-20) has now been published and is available to members here.

This edition features valued contributions from Judge Síofra O’Leary of the ECtHR, Prof. Suzanne Kingston, Prof. Liz Heffernan, Dr. Noreen O’Meara, Darach Connolly, Senior Associate, DLA Piper and Dr. Vincent Power, Partner at A&L Goodbody. 

Special thanks are due to joint editors Maureen O’Neill (Vice President and former Chair of the ISEL) and Dr. Mary Catherine Lucey of University College Dublin for their work in putting together this volume.

Report on Litigation Funding and Class actions Launched

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A joint report by the ISEL and litigation funding and class actions, prepared by the Irish Society for European Law (ISEL) and EU Bar Association Ireland was formally launched by Chief Justice Frank Clarke at an event in the Law Library of Ireland to mark the occasion.

The report assesses whether litigation in Ireland is being stifled through a lack of third-party litigation funding and class actions in this jurisdiction.  It as presented to Mr Justice Clarke by Aoife Beirne BL, Chair of the ISEL, at the event and is available to download here.

Time spent in prison ‘cannot count towards EU residence’

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The first weeks of 2014 and the closing weeks of 2013 saw the European Court of Justice deliver a number of interesting decisions.

In cases C-378/12 and C-400/12 Onuekwere, the court concluded that periods of time spent in prison cannot be counted as part of the five years of legal residence after which one is entitled to permanent residence in an EU Member State.

The plaintiff in this case, Mr Onuekwere (a Nigerian national who was entitled to reside in the UK with his Irish wife) sought permanent residence on the basis that his stay in the UK had exceeded five years, despite that residence have being punctuated by a number of prison sentences.

The court further held that even those periods spent at liberty in the UK before and after Mr Onuekwere’s incarcerations could not be aggregated in order to meet the five year requirement.

The rights of gay couples in civil partnerships received a fillip from the Court of Justice’s decision in Case C-267/12 Hay.

Mr Hay, who had concluded a French civil partnership with his partner, sought to avail of certain benefits provided for married employees in a collective agreement negotiated by his employer with employee representatives.

The court concluded that in those member states in which gay marriage was not available (such as France at the time), the denial of such benefits to gay couples in civil partnerships while providing them to married couples was discriminatory and a breach of EU law.

Away from the European courts, the European Commission has been investigating some novel breaches of EU law. In December the premises of a number of consumer electronics manufacturers (including Samsung and Philips) were raided by commission representatives investigating potential breaches of competition law arising from restrictions placed by manufacturers on the online sale of their products.

Such restrictions (known as ‘vertical restraints’) can harm consumer choice and price competition but have not previously been the focus of large-scale enforcement by the commission in the consumer electronics sector.

While the funding received by Spanish football giants Barcelona and Real Madrid from municipal authorities has already been investigated by the commission, the question of public support for professional sports teams appears to be coming closer to home.

The commission is said to be reviewing financial support given by Carmarthenshire Council to the Llanelli Scarlets rugby region and Swansea Council contributing to the costs of developing the Liberty Stadium, home to Swansea City football club and the Ospreys rugby team.

Finally, on January 1st Latvia became the newest member of the euro family, adopting the common currency in place of the lats.

This article by Donogh Hardiman and John Darmody, members of the Irish Society for European Law, was published in the Irish Times on 3 February 2014.

© 2014 irishtimes.com  – Click here to view this article on the Irish Times website

Website owners can link to protected works, court rules

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January and February have seen a number of EU law developments.

In Case C-466/12 (Nils Svensson and Others v Retriever Sverige AB) a question on interpretation of EU law was raised by a Swedish court before the Court of Justice regarding press articles written by Swedish journalists which were published on a freely accessible basis on the website of the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper.

Retriever Sverige, a Swedish company, operates a website that provides hyperlinks to articles published on other websites, including Göteborgs-Posten . It did not ask the journalists concerned for authorisation to establish hyperlinks to the articles published on the site.

On February 13th, the Court of Justice responded to the Swedish court’s request. It concluded that the owner of a website may, without the authorisation of the copyright holders, redirect internet users, via hyperlinks, to protected works available on a freely accessible basis on another site. This is so even if the internet users who click on the link have the impression that the work is appearing on the site that contains the link.

In Case C-367/12, Mrs Sokoll-Seebacher, who wanted to open a pharmacy in Pinsdorf, had her request for authorisation rejected under Austrian law on the ground that no need for such a pharmacy existed within that Austrian municipality.

Also on February 13th, the Court of Justice found that demographic criteria applied under Austrian law regarding the opening of new pharmacies were incompatible with the EU principle of freedom of establishment. By not allowing derogations to take account of particular local conditions, those criteria did not respect the requirement of consistency of application of national legislation.

Even if the national proceedings had no cross-border element, the relevant Austrian legislation was capable of falling within the remit of freedom of establishment since it might also apply to nationals of other member states who may wish to move to Austria to set up a pharmacy there.

Away from the EU Courts, the EU has initiated a number of reforms to increase the resilience of banks and to reduce the probability and impact of bank failure.

On January 29th, 2014, the EU Commission adopted a proposal for a regulation to stop the biggest banks from engaging in the risky activity of proprietary trading.

The new rules would also give supervisors the power to require those banks to separate certain potentially risky trading activities from their deposit-taking business if their pursuit compromised financial stability. In addition, the commission adopted measures to increase the transparency of certain transactions in the shadow banking sector.

On February 4th, the European Parliament approved the commission’s proposal for a directive on criminal sanctions for market abuse (ie, insider dealing and market manipulation in EU financial markets). This would lead to a common set of criminal sanctions in the EU including fines and imprisonment of four years for insider dealing/market manipulation and two years for unlawful disclosure of inside information.

This is the first legislative proposal based on the new article 83(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which provides for the adoption of common minimum rules on criminal law when this proves essential to ensure the effective implementation of a harmonised EU policy.

This article by Alan McCarthy and Aileen Murtagh, members of the Irish Society for European Law, was published in the Irish Times on 3 March 2014.

© 2014 irishtimes.com  – Click here to view this article on the Irish Times website