On the 23rd of October 2009 the Montesquieu Institute Maastricht hosted a conference on parliamentary involvement with military missions. Even where it does not concern the actual waging of war, sending troops on military missions abroad is never undertaken lightly. No matter how many safeguards are put in place, it remains a decision that potentially risks the lives of men and women in the armed forces.

When lives are so directly influenced by political decision making, the question arises ...

Two dominant trends in today’s world are hegemony and constitutionalism. The attitude of greater states or regional blocks, such as the US, Russia, China and the EU, represents hegemony. In parallel, constitutionalism is getting stronger through international organizations, international adjudicatory bodies and ‘higher norms’ of international law. While these processes represent a move away from the Westphalian inter-state logic, they also juxtapose hegemony and constitutionalism to eac...

This book examines the South Asian constitutional systems (India 1950, Bangladesh 1972, Pakistan 1973, Sri Lanka 1978, Bhutan 2008, Nepal 2015), adopting a comparative law and ‘contextual’ approach. Social diversity is the main feature of this geographical region, vast in dimension, also according to its demographic profile. This is why studying this area from a legal and institutional perspective is not only a crucial need for comparative law, but also a major methodological and intellec...

‘An Instrumental Approach to Planning and Development Law in the Netherlands’ seeks to be an accessible introduction to the extensive field of planning law.

The book covers both the ‘planning side’ (the formal system) and the ‘development side’ (including the interrelations between municipalities and developers). That implies that not only public law instruments are discussed, but also the many types of agreements between local authorities and property developers.

The emphasis in ...

“This book is an enrichment for the standing debate about Europe and should be published and widely read and discussed.” – Boudewijn R.A. Bouckaert

Reflections on Democracy in de European Union, with a foreword by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, is a unique volume that offers an interdisciplinary approach on EU democracy, law and politics from economic, juridical and philosophical perspectives. It is divided in three parts and deals with EU’s contemporary challenges, its historical d...

With a foreword by Ján Figel, Special Envoy for Promotion of Freedom of Religion or Belief outside the EU.

What room should be granted to controversial statements and expressions about faith? Should the state subsidize the building of places of worship? How much loyalty to the state can be demanded of religions? Under what

circumstances may the state and religious communities work together to reach a common goal? What does equal treatment of religions mean today?

The debate on the relation ...

This is the first publication to portray a thorough overview of the European State Aid developments in light of the COVID-19 outbreak and the ensuing economic crisis.

Dit is de eerste publicatie die een grondig overzicht biedt van de Europese staatssteunontwikkelingen in het licht van de COVID-19 uitbraak en de daaropvolgende economische crisis.

Despite the paramount role of choice of law in international contractual relationships, its implementation in various countries remains disparate. Many countries have acknowledged and given effect to choice of law, but some other countries persist in opposing it. The lingering reluctance in enforcing choice of law remains a challenging impediment to cross-border commercial relationships.

Strict adherence to the territoriality principle, absence of special provisions or clear guidelines of ch...

Climate change poses tremendous legal challenges. The law is still largely unsettled. Seeing the global consequences of GHG emissions, many enterprises may face litigation before courts in multiple jurisdictions. The outcome of these cases is often hard to predict. It is in the best interest of humankind and the environment to create global obligations, for instance in the form of concrete obligations of States and enterprises, which can be applied by courts around the globe. Using a myriad o...

In the aftermath of the Second World War,

Karl Popper introduced his concept of the

“open society”. Poppers focussed primarily

on communism and fascism. Nowadays,

communism and fascism have faded

away as the primary challenges for open,

democratic states, but new challenges have

come to the fore. Closed communities pose

a significant challenge and sometimes a

threat to democratic values. What are those

closed communities? This book presents

a diagnosis of those closed communit...