Trade mark use in transit: EU-phony or cacophony?

Legal context The present article discusses the opinion of Advocate-GeneralJacobs in Case C-405/05 Class International BV v Unilever NVand others, according to which trade mark owners cannot opposethe entry into the European Union of grey market non-Communitygoods placed in external transit, on the grounds of Article5(1) of the Trade Mark Directive, or any equivalent provision,as such entry does not constitute trade mark use. Key points We examine the consistency of this approach withprior case law of the European Court of Justice, namely in theCommission v France, Rioglass, The Polo/Lauren and Rolex casesand draw a parallelism with Council Regulation (EC) 1383/2003. Practical significance We conclude that trade mark owners shouldbe allowed to prohibit the placing in transit of goods whichwould infringe an intellectual property right under the lawof the transit country, unless the owner or consignor of thelitigious goods can undeniably prove that the goods are notdestined for the internal market. Stop press. At the end of the article the authors provide abrief analysis of the European Court of Justice's decision of18th October 2005 in this case.     

Der Gebiets- und der Artenschutz der FFH-Richtlinie im Lichte der Urteile des EuGH in den Vertragsverletzungsverfahren Rs. C-6/04 gegen das Vereinigte Königreich und Rs. C-98/03 gegen Deutschland

Die Urteile des EuGH in den Vertragsverletzungsverfahren Rs. C-6/04 gegen das Vereinigte K?nigreich von Gro?britannien und Nordirland und Rs. C-98/03 gegen Deutschland enthalten überaus bedeutsame und weitreichende Fortentwicklungen des Rechts der FFH-RL zu den Anforderungen an den Gebietsund den Artenschutz. Mit den Urteilen folgt der EuGH seiner im Severn Estuar-Urteil (Rs. C-371/981) eingeleiteten und im Wattenmeer-Urteil (Rs. C-127/022) fortgesetzten, naturschutzfachlich überaus anspruchsvollen, für den weiteren Vollzug der Richtlinie in den Mitgliedstaaten jedoch überaus problematischen Linie.     

The EU offensive against IP offences: should right-holders be offended?

Preliminary comments by interested parties on the draft EuropeanDirective on criminal measures aimed at ensuring the enforcementof intellectual property rights and the corresponding FrameworkDecision were made at a public hearing in the European Parliamenton 22 November 2005. At this hearing it became apparent thatconsensus on the proposed measures will be hard to reach, asright-holders and their lobby groups seem surprisingly reticentwith regard to the proposed harmonization. This article summarizesthe draft proposal and comments on some of the most relevantobservations made at the hearing.     

Health, Social Movements, and Rights-based Litigation in South Africa

This article investigates the impact of rights-based litigation on social struggles in the South African health sector. It considers the manner in which individuals and social movements have utilized rights and the legal process in their efforts to dismantle the ill-health/poverty cycle, in the particular context of the struggle for universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS. Relying on literature concerning the transformative potential of socio-economic rights litigation and on examples from South African case law, the article critically evaluates the gains that have been made and the obstacles that have been encountered in this context. It argues that rights-based litigation presents a powerful tool in the struggle against poverty, but also elaborates on structural and institutional hurdles that continue to inhibit the effectiveness of rights-based strategies in this regard.     

Omnivorous Cultural Policy: The Case of Concerts Norway

This article uses the case of Concerts Norway to analyze how the agency of esthetics is changing and expanding within a cultural policy institution. Concerts Norway has provided concerts to all age groups and all parts of the country for nearly fifty?years. The ambition of the institution has been to ensure that all Norwegian citizens have had access to quality music. The article describes how these cultural policy ambitions entail a general esthetic agency, and how different kinds of musical genres have been given agency through the work of the institution, thereby representing a seemingly omnipotent and increasingly omnivorous cultural policy.     

Moving Beyond Command-and-Control: Reflexivity in the Regulation of Occupational Safety and Health and the Environment

Direct or "command-and-control" regulation has had limited success in dealing with occupational health and safety and with environmental regulation. This lack of success has led policymakers to experiment with self-regulation as an alternative means of achieving the goals of social regulation. The economic subsystem fails to acknowledge its social identity and, therefore, appears to be blind to its negative performance regarding the environment and the workplace. The authors of this paper argue that moving beyond command-and-control can be feasible and desirable, at least to a certain extent, but that pitfalls are omnipresent. "Regulatory dilemmas" need to be solved, sound empirical studies need to be conducted, and a guiding theory needs to be drafted. To achieve these goals, the authors suggest use of the key concept of "reflexivity," which refers to the economic organization's relationship with itself. The practical usefulness of this theoretical concept is explored against the background of regulatory practice in the areas of occupational safety and health and the environment. It is concluded that a mode of reflexive administrative law requires a "negotiating government," which adopts a mixture of strategies and learns to cope with issues like third-party interests, access to information, and enforcement.     

How Self-Relevant is Fair Treatment? Social Self-Esteem Moderates Interactional Justice Effects

An organizational field study examined the extent to which fair treatment influences organizational commitment was a function of employees levels of social self-esteem. Following recent research indicating that self-esteem acts as a moderator of procedural fairness effects, we suggested that to examine the relational assumption that self and procedures are related, one should assess the social dimension of self-esteem. In line with predictions, the results indeed showed that fair treatment (assessed by an interactional justice scale) positively influences affective commitment, but only when employees have low social self-esteem. These findings are discussed in light of research on relational models of justice and sociometer theory.