Monthly Archives: July, 2024
‘Retromark Volume XIV: the last six months in trade marks’
Six months stretches to eight months for this volume, which takes us from December last year to this month. An amazing seven out of the 10 cases covered are judgments of either the UK Court of Appeal or the UK Supreme Court, proving that trade mark law is well and truly alive and kicking – […]
Konstantinos Alexandris Polomarkakis, ‘A Culture of Commodification? Labour Rights in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union’
ABSTRACT This article examines the deficiencies of the labour rights enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (EU). It draws on the notion of labour as a fictive commodity in order to showcase how labour rights in the Charter can also be framed as being part of a commodification process, owing […]
Jie (Jeanne) Huang, ‘Can private parties contract out of the Hague Service Convention?’
ABSTRACT Treaties are concluded by States but often impose rights and obligations directly upon private parties. Can private parties contract out of a treaty including States’ oppositions without explicit permissions granted by the treaty? The complexity between party autonomy and State sovereignty is reflected in recent cases and unsettled debates regarding the Hague Convention on […]
‘Adverse Possession and Reasonable Belief’
As we all know, the Land Registration Act 2002 changed the law of adverse possession, making it much harder for adverse possessors to gain a good title. You have to apply to register your ownership under paragraph 1 of Schedule 6 to the Land Registry, who in turn will notify the registered owner. If the […]
Gus Tamborello, ‘If You Kill Your Honey, Don’t Expect the Money: the Rights of a Killer in Texas to Share in His Victim’s Estate’
I. DEATH BY SLEDGEHAMMER On October 25, 2013, Steven and Laquita Lawrence left their home in Fort Bend County, Texas to purchase a new phone for their son, and only child, twenty-seven-year-old, Ross Patrick Lawrence. Ross had recently returned home from Burbank, California, where he had relocated, purportedly to pursue a career in movie production. […]
Hillary Chua, ‘Competence, Capacity and Consent to Medical Treatment – VYG v VYH’
ABSTRACT As it is in medicine, so it is in law: the rules for when one can give legally valid consent to medical treatment differ for minors and adults. This paper analyses Singapore’s first judgment concerning medical decision-making by and on behalf of mature minors: a Family Court decision on Gillick competence in the context […]
Akshaya Kamalnath, ‘Hashtag capitalism: An introduction’
ABSTRACT This article aims to introduce the phenomenon of ‘hashtag capitalism’ – that is, the ability of shareholders, employees, customers and even members of society to leverage social media in a way that influences corporate behaviour. While it is a positive development that, via social media, members of society are engaging with and influencing corporate […]
‘Houssein and Others v London Credit Limited and Another [2024] EWCA Civ 721′
On 28 June 2024, the Court of Appeal handed down Judgment in Houssein & Others v London Credit Limited & Another [2024] EWCA Civ 721, an appeal concerning penalties, the interpretation of a facility letter, and costs orders following trial. Gary Cowen KC and Edward Blakeney, with Alexander Hutton KC, instructed by Hugh Cartwright & […]
Victor Habib Lantyer, ‘The Expansion of the Theory of the Electronic Body’
ABSTRACT The Theory of the Electronic Body, created by the Italian jurist Stefano Rodotà, consists of the set of information about us that exists on the internet, forming an authentic profile of each person’s personality. This electronic body requires a series of legal protections, especially with the advent of big data, which refers to the […]
Masur and Ouellette, ‘Disclosure Puzzles in Patent Law’
ABSTRACT Since its inception, patent law has required that inventors publicly disclose information about their inventions in exchange for receiving patent rights. This foundational requirement is policed through multiple doctrines: patents fail enablement if ‘undue experimentation’ is needed to practice the invention, and they lack adequate written description when they fail to establish the inventor’s […]