In Absentia Trials and the Right to Defend: The Incorporation of a European Human Rights Principle into the Dutch Criminial Justice System

In a case against the Netherlands the European Court on Human Rights gave an interpretation of a provision in the Convention that amounted to the recognition of a defence right that was historically and systematically alien to Dutch criminal procedure. The Dutch criminal justice authorities had to respond to implement that recognition in the domestic justice administration. Besides explaining the intricacies of the Dutch trial in absentia, very often considered in comparative studies to be a rather odd feature of Dutch law, this article provides an interesting demonstration of the process of transplanting foreign legal ideas. &nbsp

Patenting Human Biological Materials and Data:Balancing the reward of innovation with the ordre public and morality exception

The availability of human biological materials and data plays a key role in promoting biotechnological innovations and conducting biomedical research. While the function of patent rights in promoting innovation is widely discussed, there are still overarching concerns in patenting human biological materials and data, including triggering commercialization and commodification of the human body, precluding affordable access to the products or services and inducing interest extraction by patent holders to recoup investments and make excessive profits. This article aims to analyse the extent to which the ordre public and morality exclusion can protect the human being whose bodily material has been taken and prevent legal and ethical exploitation. We argue that the concept of ordre public and morality needs to be modified, sparking a new governance approach to better protecting human beings in a patent system that is more participatory, accountable and transparent in patent assessment