In this article the Think-Aloud Method, a method used in problem solving research in Psychology, is used in legal research to gather data on how novices, expert beginners and experts read, structure and analyse legal decisions. In the Dutch legal system decisions by judges are a major source of law. So it is important that law students learn to read, structure and analyse legal decisions. However, reading and understanding a decision does not go without saying, it has to be learned. The data we gather using the Think-Aloud Method are used to improve instruction to support the effective and efficient learning of comprehending legal decisions. We describe the Think-Aloud Method, our experimental design and our approach for analysing the protocols.

In deze bijdrage gaat de auteur op zoek naar wat de verplichtingen zijn die de executeur heeft ten aanzien van de onlinenalatenschap. Moet een executeur actief op zoek naar bitcoins en andere digitale bezittingen? Hoever gaat zijn onderzoeksplicht in een onlinenalatenschap? Ook gaat de auteur kort in op de erfbelasting en digitale bezittingen: de executeur moet ook hier aangifte van doen.

De zorg voor veiligheid wordt niet meer gezien als exclusieve taak van de politie. Naast de politie zijn andere, zowel publieke als private toezichthouders en handhavers werkzaam in de (semi)publieke ruimte. Dit gebeurt niet alleen in Nederland, maar ook in veel andere landen, zowel binnen als buiten Europa. Vaak leidt dat tot een gefragmentariseerd stelsel van handhaving. Het internationale vergelijkende onderzoek dat in dit artikel wordt gepresenteerd, biedt aanknopingspunten om te leren van ervaringen die in andere landen zijn opgedaan. Tevens worden twee opties besproken waarin wordt aangegeven hoe de coördinatie kan worden verbeterd.

In deze bijdrage wordt verslag gedaan van een onderzoek dat in opdracht van het Personenschade Instituut van Verzekeraars (PIV) is verricht naar de baten, effectiviteit en methode van het bevorderen door verzekeraars van het aanbieden van excuses aan verkeersslachtoffers. Ingegaan wordt op de niet-financiële impact van schadetoebrenging en wat er voor mogelijkheden zijn om daaraan tegemoet te komen. Daarbij is niet alleen gekeken naar excuses door de veroorzaker van het verkeersongeval, maar ook naar wat verzekeraars zelf kunnen doen aan de omstandigheid dat verkeersslachtoffers door het ongeval en zijn gevolgen ook ‘rood staan op hun emotionele bankrekening’. In een volgende bijdrage zal verslag worden gedaan van door verzekeringsmaatschappijen in het kader van dit onderzoek uitgevoerde pilots.

In this article data derived from observations and interviews are used to examine private methods of investigation as used by corporate security providers in the Netherlands, and the private settlement options which follow those investigations. It is argued that, rather than leadership being exercised by public actors and institutions (police, prosecutors, criminal courts and also civil courts), those actors are selectively and strategically mobilised by corporate security, on behalf of their private sector clients. Corporate security and its clients have a ‘pick and choose’ approach when searching for an optimal solution for the incident at hand (forum shopping).

‘Pride’ and ‘honour’ are two concepts that are closely related and in the context of South Africa, are often based on a history of violent battles between various groups in society. VU University Amsterdam has lifelong relations with the historically Afrikaner universities in South Africa. During the Apartheid years the Afrikaner universities scientifically legitimized many of the apartheid policies and practices. In that sense VU University Amsterdam, through its relations to South African counterparts, may be considered complicit with the policies and practices of the Apartheid regime. Consequently, there seems little reason for pride and honour, but rather shame about having sided with academic partners who have at least passively supported the regime? Starting with an explicit acknowledgement of this complicity, the oeuvre of former Archbishop Desmond Tutu may open a path of hope for VUA to contribute to mending past injustices and by, together with its South African academic partners, working towards equality and building new relations in the present South African society.

De Staten-Generaal dragen via het controleren van de regering en door (mede)wetgeving bij aan het borgen van publieke belangen. Literatuur en praktijk laten echter zien dat publieke belangen onder voorwaarden ook effectief kunnen worden geborgd door zelfregulering. Dit artikel geeft een beschouwing op de gevolgen van zelfregulering voor het democratische gehalte van beleid, op vraagstukken rondom representativiteit bij zelfreguleringsinitiatieven en op kansen en risico’s betreffende de effectiviteit van borging van publieke belangen. Deze drie aspecten worden belicht vanuit de ervaringen met vier vormen van zelfregulering binnen de Sociaal-Economische Raad (SER).

Managing commercial conflicts requires reflexivity: the description of the conflict influences the manner in which the conflict is handled, and changing this description may influence this approach and the desirable outcome. The Belgian law firm contrast was curious to find out more of different parameters influencing the manner in which a conflict is handled. It developed an in-dept questionnaire and submitted it to 40 participants. The findings of this research are commented.

Colombia has been a territory with some social and political difficulties which have affected several dynamics of the community as well as the legal security in almost all levels of the Colombian society. The alternative dispute resolution mechanisms arise as a response for all the gaps that such circumstances produce in the country and as useful tools to solve numerous disputes in different fields. The Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá, through its Arbitration and Conciliation Center founded in 1983, is making a permanent bet to support the Colombian citizens’ coexistence in the schools, in the neighbourhoods, in the companies that provide jobs as well as benefits to the city and to the whole country. Clever strategies have been developed through the years with three purposes: change the culture about the alternative dispute resolution methods, provide confidence in using them and change the way the people manage their conflicts.

Surveillance measures in public places such as train stations, large events or business premises are aimed at increasing security at those specific locations. They enable people to move around securely at public (high) risk locations. However, people often experience these measures as an obstacle. Too much security often results in limitations of freedom of movement and violations of privacy. Could surveillance measures be designed in such a way that they are perceived more as a ‘service’? The authors studied the variables that influence whether people experience surveillance as a service or as a hindrance. At three surveillance locations (Schiphol Airport, Hoog Catharijne shopping area and Amersfoort railway station) more than thousand visitors were surveyed. They were asked how they experienced service and security on the site. The results show that there are differences in service perception in relation to security measures at the three locations studied. They show how the tension between service and safety can be reduced and provide clues for improving security measures. The results can be used by owners of public locations, surveillance stakeholders or private companies for the optimalisation and re-design of a location, as their goal is to attract loyal visitors, who are not frustrated and are willing to use the location frequently, and who preferably speak positively about the location to others. Also the security measures themselves can be improved, both technical security measures as well as human security measures.

Als een geschikte koper is gevonden voor een te executeren onroerend goed, is het doorlopen van het wettelijke executietraject vaak nog nodig om het goed te bevrijden van rechten van derden of omdat de hypotheekgever weigert mee te werken. Een pre-auction agreement biedt dan uitkomst. De auteur beschrijft inhoud en toelaatbaarheid van een pre-auction agreement en pleit voor een regeling die onderhandse executoriale verkoop buiten het stramien van Rechtsvordering mogelijk maakt.

In both the European Union (EU) and the United States (US), the law governing the enforcement of foreign judgments is evolving, but in different directions. EU law, especially after the elimination of exequatur by the 2012 ’Recast’ of the Brussels I Regulation, increasingly facilitates enforcement in member states of judgments of other member states’ courts, reflecting growing faith in a multilateral private international law approach to foreign judgments. In US law, on the other hand, increasingly widespread adoption of state legislation based on the 2005 Uniform Foreign-Country Money Judgments Recognition Act (2005 Act), which adds new case-specific grounds for refusing enforcement, suggests growing scepticism. In this essay, I explore possible reasons for these diverging trends. I begin with the most obvious explanation: the Brussels framework governs the effect of internal EU member state judgments within the EU, whereas the 2005 Act governs the effect of external foreign country judgments within the US. One would expect more mutual trust – and thus more faith in foreign judgment enforcement – internally than externally. But I argue that this mutual trust explanation is only partially satisfactory. I therefore sketch out two other possible explanations. One is that the different trends in EU and US law are a result of an emphasis on ’governance values’ in EU law and an emphasis on ’rights values’ in US law. Another explanation – and perhaps the most fundamental one – is that these trends are ultimately traceable to politics.

This contribution firstly reviews developments in the EU and in the United States on corporate social responsibility and conflict of laws. It concludes with reference to some related themes, in particular on the piercing of the corporate veil and with some remarks on compliance strategy, and compliance reality, for corporations.

As globalisation progresses, cross-border movements of people are becoming dynamic and multilateral. The existence of different groups and minorities within the community renders the society multiethnic and multicultural. As individuals acquire new affiliation and belonging, the conventional conflict of laws methods may no longer be viable and should be subject to a thorough re-examination. Against this background, this paper analyses appropriate conflicts rules in international family relations to reflect an individual’s identity. Furthermore, in light of the contemporary law fragmentation, this study also analyses interactions between state law and non-state cultural, religious or customary norms.

The regulation of transnational employment in the European Union operates at the crossroads between private international law and internal market rules. The private international law rules are currently laid down in the Rome I Regulation. This regulation is complemented by the Posted Workers Directive, a directive based on the competences of the EU in the field of free movement of services. The current contribution first describes the rules which determine the law applicable to the employment contract under Article 8 Rome I Regulation and the way these rules are interpreted by the CJEU before critically analysing these rules and the reasoning that seems to lie behind the court’s interpretation (section 2). The law applying to the contract is, however, only of limited relevance for the protection of posted workers. This is due inter alia to the mandatory application of certain rules of the country to which the workers are posted, even if a different law governs their contract. This application of host state law is based on Article 9 Rome I Regulation in conjunction with the Posted Workers Directive. Section 3 describes the content of these rules and the – to some extent still undecided – interaction between the Rome I Regulation and the PWD. The conclusion will be that there is an uneasy match between the interests informing private international law and the interests of the internal market, which is not likely to be resolved in the near future.

Over the course of time the European Union has increased its powers considerably. Currently, almost all food safety regulations in the member states rest on European law. Despite this common legal base, several differences between member states still exist. This article compares the way Scottish and Dutch authorities deal with a particular item of European food law: the development of national guides to good practice for hygiene and for the application of HACCP principles by the food industry. The results of this investigation are consistent with the conclusion of Falkner et al. that the implementation of EU law in both the Netherlands and the UK depends on domestic issues. The dominant issue in Scotland (and the UK) is the FSA objective to bring consistent food controls and independency from industry which results in the development of governmental guidance. The prevailing issue in the Netherlands is making industry responsible for food safety which helps explain the extensive use of industry guides. This study shows that in order to understand what happens on the ground it is important to look beyond transposition or direct effect and also to investigate the implementation of regulations and to dig deeper than just their transposition.

Forest certification schemes and the legality regime are two main methods of transnational forest governance. A recent review of the literature has revealed that the government and forest certification are often intertwined. Based on that review, this contribution argues that governments play divergent roles in forest certification schemes in different aspects of the regulatory process: namely, agenda and standard setting, implementation, monitoring, and enforcement. In most FSC schemes, governments in developed countries play a less active role in most of these aspects than they do in context-based industry-dominated schemes. In the three emerging economies examined – Indonesia, Brazil, and China – the government sometimes plays a more active role in context-based, industry-dominated schemes than it does in developed countries. The rising legality regime might further strengthen the role of the government in forest governance in these emerging economies. Moreover, China may exemplify the fact that forest governance is entering a new phase, because the country not only exports to countries demanding legal verification, but also imports from countries where the risk of illegal logging is high. This illustrates that the role of governments in forest governance is constantly evolving.

In this paper a literature review is used to explore the role that commercial contracts concluded between private actors play as instruments of regulatory governance. While such contracts are traditionally seen as a means to facilitate exchange between market participants, it is argued in the literature that commercial contracts are becoming increasingly important vehicles for the implementation and enforcement of safety, social and sustainability standards in transnational supply chains. The paper maps the pervasiveness of this development, its drivers, and the governance challenges that arise from it. While doing so, the paper more generally explores the relationship between regulation and contract law.

An emerging body of empirical governance studies highlights that the role of the state in governance has been changing. It has moved away from governing societal problems solely through traditional direct regulatory interventions. State actors are now (also) taking up facilitative and enabling roles in innovative voluntary governance arrangements. This article seeks to gain a better understanding of these facilitating and enabling roles of state actors in real world practice and what (clusters of) roles are needed to obtain successful outcomes from these arrangements. It builds on an empirical study of ten different arrangements in the Dutch sustainable building sector, which are analysed using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) methodology. It finds no evidence that any of the specific (clusters of) role(s) is necessary to achieve positive outcomes from the arrangements studied, but uncovers that when combined, such roles affect the outcomes of arrangements. It concludes by presenting an evidence-based typology of combinations of roles that state actors may wish to take up in seeking positive outcomes from innovative voluntary governance arrangements, or preventing negative outcomes.

In a neoliberal age governments, NGOs, food producers and retailers all state that the food system can be governed via consumer choice aka voting with your fork. This makes the retail food label an important space for contests between different actors who each seek to govern the food system according to their own interests and priorities. The paper argues that this makes it crucial to ‘backwards map’ the regulatory governance networks behind the governance claims staked on food labels. The paper uses the example of the contested meaning of ‘free-range’ claims on animal products in Australia to propose and illustrate a methodology for this backwards mapping.