Ruben De Graaff- Doctor of Philosophy
- Lecturer at Leiden University
Ruben De Graaff
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Lecturer at Leiden University
Attorney-at-law in The Hague, the Netherlands.
About
35
Publications
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20
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Introduction
Current institution
Additional affiliations
September 2017 - December 2017
August 2013 - present
Publications
Publications (35)
Steeds meer verordeningen bevatten vermogensrechtelijke regels. In deze bijdrage brengen wij deze ontwikkeling in kaart en bespreken wij welke consequenties zij heeft voor de inzichtelijkheid, kenbaarheid en coherentie van het vermogensrecht. Ook geven wij aan hoe wetenschappers, wetgevingsjuristen en rechters met deze ontwikkeling kunnen omgaan.
This contribution analyses whether, and to what extent, the law permits a choice between finding liability in contract and in tort. The answer to this question is important because the outcome of a case may differ depending on whether the claim for damages is based on a breach of contract or on a violation of a tortious duty.
The contribution exa...
This article is a comparative study of the Dutch and French legal systems regarding four major points of the French governmental reform project for civil liability : concurrence of actions; limitation and exemption clauses; causation; the obligation to mitigate your own damage. It also addresses the following issues: the question of damages to the...
In dit artikel laat ik zien dat de maatstaven van redelijkheid en billijkheid kunnen worden gebruikt om grondrechtelijke belangen verdergaand te beschermen dan uit het EVRM volgt. Anders dan de literatuur suggereert, biedt de Hoge Raad deze bescherming ook zonder dat hij ‘rugdekking’ krijgt van het EHRM. De privaatrechtelijke open norm fungeert dus...
On 1 July 2012, the preliminary reference procedure was introduced at the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. This procedure is not a modern invention. It has travelled a long way through time and space – from southern to northern Europe, from Roman imperial times to the 21st century. This contribution explores the Roman roots of the preliminary refe...
Tegenwoordig worden de rechten en verplichtingen van private partijen zowel door het nationale vermogensrecht als door het Unierecht geregeld. Toepassing van deze regels kan tot uiteenlopende resultaten leiden. Dan rijst de vraag of de rechthebbende mag kiezen op welke rechtsregel of -regels hij een beroep wenst te doen. Kunnen de regels naast elka...
In the multi-level legal order, it is not unusual for a legal relationship between private parties to be governed by multiple Union rules on, for instance, non-discrimination, free movement, competition and the internal market more broadly. Nor is it uncommon that, on the face of it, national private law creates rights and duties as well. In such s...
Deze bijdrage is het resultaat van een onderzoek door de Grotius-Pothier interuniversitaire
onderzoeksgroep in rechtsvergelijking. Zij biedt een eerste rechtsvergelijkende analyse van het Belgische hervormingsproject van buitencontractuele aansprakelijkheid. Zij bespreekt enkele van de voorstellen van de Commissie tot hervorming vanuit het perspect...
The Union legislature has developed a preference for using regulations rather than directives. This legislative shift raises important questions that have, so far, received little attention.
What does the preference for regulations entail for the future of the national civil codes? What impact does this development have on the clarity, accessibil...
Het arrest Quint/Te Poel is al zestig jaar een belangrijk ankerpunt in discussies over de verhouding tussen geschreven en ongeschreven verbintenissenrecht, tussen wetgever en rechter. De invoering van het nieuwe Burgerlijk Wetboek heeft deze status geenszins in gevaar gebracht. Toch zou het onjuist zijn om het arrest te beschouwen als het eindpunt...
In the context of European insolvency law, the multiplication, overlap and conflict of different legal levels and sites is sharply demonstrated. The division of a company may spark different actions and defences – rooted in European law, insolvency law and private law. This contribution seeks to provide a method to solve such 'issues of concurrence...
The United Kingdom has decided to leave the European Union per 29 March 2019. What does this Brexit mean for the development and application of EU-derived legislation within the British legal order? How would the highest courts - the UK Supreme Court and the ECJ - approach that sort of issue?
Kan het Europese recht gelden als bron van verbintenissen in de zin van artikel 6:1 BW? Passen deze Europese verbintenissen in het Nederlandse stelsel? En is het noodzakelijk en wenselijk deze verbintenissen in dit stelsel in te weven?
The French government intends to reform the remaining body of liability law. It proposes to codify and modify the well-known principle of non-cumul des responsabilités contractuelle et délictuelle, that has originally been developed by the Cour de cassation.
This contribution examines the government’s proposal from a comparative perspective. This...
De Consumentenbond, ondernemersorganisaties en de Nederlandse Vereniging van Banken hebben overeenstemming bereikt over een vernieuwde versie van de Algemene Bankvoorwaarden (ABV). Deze versie zal gelden per 1 maart 2017, zowel voor de zakelijke klanten van de bank als voor de consumenten. In het Tijdschrift voor Financieel Recht bespreken wij de v...
Schadevergoeding wegens bedrog bij aandelen-transactie. Het hof past de verjaringstermijn van art. 7:23 lid 2 BW (non-conformiteit) toe. Terecht? Hoe kan de rechter de bedrogene tegemoetkomen?
Against the background of the relationship between the ECHR, national constitutional law and national private law, this contribution examines the influence of the right to access to a court under Article 6 ECHR on the core concept of prescription, with a focus on the prescription of ‘long-tail’ claims. Has private law been able to fashion appropria...
This chapter critically examines the CESL from the viewpoint of its capability to provide legal certainty for commercial actors. This chapter’s analysis focuses on three important stages in the life cycle of a contract, seen from a business perspective: the scope rules that determine whether the CESL applies to a contract (para. 5.2), the interpret...
De publicatiecultuur in de rechtswetenschap kreeg de afgelopen jaren veel aandacht. De discussie richtte zich mede op de wijze waarop tijdschriftredacties artikelen beoordelen. Onlangs blies Van Gestel deze discussie nieuw leven in met zijn preadvies voor de NJV. Naar aanleiding van dit preadvies heeft de redactie van Ars Aequi haar eigen beoordeli...
Inmiddels pleiten ook civilisten voor constitutionele toetsing en voor de oprichting van een constitutioneel hof. Kennelijk staat de civiele rechter niet altijd te springen om grondrechten goed te beschermen. Bij die aanname kunnen echter kanttekeningen worden geplaatst. Het burgerlijk recht is een ‘living instrument’ dat ook zonder constitutionele...
Hans Nieuwenhuis’ work is difficult to capture in a single sentence. It aims to impart an understanding of private law which, Nieuwenhuis says, requires an awareness of time, space and balance. We measure his work by his own yardstick.
Het werk van Hans Nieuwenhuis is moeilijk in één zin te vatten. Het beoogt begrip bij te brengen van burgerlijk recht. Daarvoor is volgens Nieuwenhuis ruimte- en tijdsbesef nodig, en weegvermogen. Wij leggen zijn werk langs die zelfgekozen meetlat.
Jurisprudentie van de Hoge Raad kan tot problemen leiden als de rechtspraktijk zich op een andere interpretatie heeft ingesteld. Als oplossing wordt soms een bepaalde vorm van rechterlijk overgangsrecht toegepast: de zogenoemde prospective overruling. Deze techniek kent zowel voor- als nadelen. Met name de positie van procespartijen kan in het gedr...
Het Amerikaanse Hooggerechtshof kan niet langer zwijgen over de grondwettelijkheid van een verbod op het homohuwelijk. Begin november 2014 besliste een federal appeals court, in tegenstelling tot andere lagere federale rechters, dat de keuze voor of tegen het homohuwelijk door de statelijke wetgever moet worden gemaakt. Deze verdeeldheid maakt een...
One of the top priorities of the newly elected European Commission is to create a connected digital single market. One of the objectives is to simplify the rules for online digital purchases by consumers. According to the Commission, traders and consumers should be able to rely on a common set of rules, which would provide a high degree of legal ce...
In het arrest Favini/Schreurs beslist de Hoge Raad dat een splitsing niet met een actio Pauliana kan worden vernietigd. De Hoge Raad lost deze samenloopkwestie niet op door de gangbare samenloopregels toe te passen, maar door te toetsen of het rechtspersonenrecht op onaanvaardbare wijze wordt doorkruist. Een dergelijke doorkruisingsleer kan ertoe l...
De samenloop tussen Verordening 261/2004 inzake passagiersrechten en het Verdrag van Montreal zorgt al jaren voor controverse. Een meer genuanceerde benadering is noodzakelijk. Daarvoor kan inspiratie worden geput uit de wijze waarop samenloopproblemen binnen het privaatrecht worden opgelost. Auteur bespreekt kritisch de jurisprudentie van het HvJ...
De laatste jaren wordt de academische wereld overspoeld door een golf van ophef rond wetenschappelijke publicaties. Begin dit jaar verplaatste het publieke debat zich naar het fenomeen ‘zelfplagiaat’. Ten onrechte wordt in de media gesuggereerd dat er nauwelijks verschil bestaat tussen plagiaat en het voortbouwen op eigen werk.
In the context of European insolvency law, the multiplication, overlap and conflict of different legal levels and sites is sharply demonstrated. The division of a company may spark different actions and defences – rooted in European law, insolvency law and private law. This contribution seeks to provide a method to solve such 'issues of concurrence...
In the current multilevel legal order, private relationships are governed by rules rooted in different international, European and national regimes. Where these rules lead to conflicts, important questions arise. May they be applied simultaneously, or should one of the regimes be excluded in favour of the other? And if the latter is the case, who s...
This contribution deals with the overlap between different remedies for breach of contract, mistake and fraud - in the context of Dutch private law and in the context of European law (CESL, Unfair Commercial Practices Directive).
In this contribution, we review the book 'Common European Sales Law - Commentary' by Reiner Schulze et al. (2013). The contribution includes an insight in the background and objectives of the CESL, a discussion of recent developments on the European level, and a critical assessment of the commentary against the background of a fictitious case on co...
One of the top priorities of the newly elected European Commission is to create a connected digital single market. One of the objectives is to simplify the rules for online digital purchases by consumers. According to the Commission, traders and consumers should be able to rely on a common set of rules, which would provide a high degree of legal ce...
Questions
Questions (3)
On 1 July 2012, the preliminary reference procedure was introduced at the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. When lower civil courts face controversial points of law, they may refer a question of interpretation to the Supreme Court and request a preliminary ruling. This way, the Supreme Court should be able to provide legal practice with a faster and more specific response to pressing legal questions than through the ‘ordinary’ procedure.
This preliminary reference procedure is not a modern invention. It was already known in Rome, existed in a specific form in France (référé législatif, where a question of interpretation was referred to the legislator), was used at the Italian Corte Costitutionale and has been a powerful tool for the development of EU law by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg (see the attached blog and article). Furthermore, Protocol 16 to the ECHR will allow highest courts of states that have ratified this Protocol to refer a question of principle to the European Court of Human Rights for an advisory opinion.
I wanted to use ResearchGate for a small comparative exercise. Perhaps you would like to answer the following questions. May lower courts in your country refer a question of interpretation to the highest court(s) in your country? Did such an instrument once exist, or is the introduction of such an instrument currently under consideration in your country?
I am also interested in literature on this subject and in other relevant international examples.
Your help is greatly appreciated,
Ruben
What do you think? Will the Supreme Court reconsider Baker v. Nelson and decide that state bans on same-sex marriages are unconstitutional?
In United States v. Windsor the Supreme Court of the United States struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, but did not rule on the question of whether a state ban on same-sex marriage breaches the right to equal treatment under the US Constitution.
Lower federal courts exercise less restraint. Since United States v. Windsor, several federal appeals courts have declared state bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Last October, the Court decided not to take these cases into consideration, even though both advocates and opponents asked the Supreme Court to provide clarity.
At that time, Supreme Court intervention was not strictly necessary because the federal appeals courts were not divided on this issue. However, since last November there is a circuit split: the federal appeals court of the sixth circuit ruled in favor of the state ban. Judge Sutton, who wrote the majority (2-1) opinion, invokes Baker v. Nelson. In this 1972 decision, the Supreme Court decides in one sentence that same-sex marriage is not a 'substantial federal question'. Moreover, Sutton argues that the decision to allow same-sex marriage is not to be made by the court: 'the people, gay and straight alike, [should] become the heroes of their own stories by meeting each other not as adversaries in a court system but as fellow citizens seeking to resolve a new social issue in a fair-minded way'.
At their private conference on Friday 16 January 2015, the Justices decided to hear four new cases on same-sex marriage. With hearings probably in April, a final decision could come before the summer recess.
According to all indications, I would say it is probable that the Supreme Court will reconsider Baker v. Nelson and decide that state bans on same-sex marriages are unconstitutional. While a denial of certiorari formally sets no precedent on the merits, it is very hard to conceive why the Court did not review previous court of appeals decisions so at odds with its presumably clear guidance in Baker v. Nelson. The Supreme Court has also refused to delay lower-court orders nullifying state bans on same-sex marriages since the decision of the federal appeals court of the sixth circuit. By now, a majority of the US population is in favor of same-sex marriage and in a majority of States those marriages are legalized. I would say it is unlikely that the Supreme Court will bring these developments to a halt. What do you think?
Article Gay marriage is about to win!
In January 2015, Leiden Law School hosts a conference devoted entirely to the ‘Interaction between Legal Systems’. During three days (21-23 January), academics, professionals and students will gather to discuss the common dilemmas and future challenges posed by the current multilevel legal order.
Researchers and practitioners are encouraged to attend the conference and present their research and results. Key note speakers will share their thoughts on current and future challenges in legal research and practice, including the collaboration with other disciplines. The conference is of interest to participants with a background in jurisprudence, constitutional, criminal, private, administrative, European and international law, and with a special interest in the intersection of these traditional branches of the law.
We are looking forward to welcoming you all in Leiden!
See for programme and registration http://goo.gl/fevoME
