Due to growing public consciousness regarding the subject of artwork and cultural property plundered in times of war and colonialisation, the European Parliament has recently adopted a resolution asking for a harmonized system of laws aimed at regulating the restitution of such objects to their lawful owners. On the 17 th January, 2019 the European Parliament voted resoundingly in favour of a resolution calling on the Union institutions and Member States to establish a legal framework encouraging the identification and recovery of artistic and cultural works. In p...

On the 25 th January 2019, the Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Businesses published the "Skills Development Regulations, 2019",  [1] which aim to financially assist those undertakings that offer schemes of professional training to their employees. The regulations apply to the period between the 1 st September 2018 and the 31 st December 2020. They also repeal the "Assistance for Knowledge Transfer Regulations", but such repeal should not affect any aid previously awarded by virtue of their past application.  [2] Under the new regulations, ...

Act XLVIII of 2016, entitled the Family Business Act (the "Act"),  [1] creates a legal framework for the registration of family businesses "established in Malta".  [2]  The system of registration contained in the Act allows Maltese authorities to supervise the grant offinancial "benefits"  [3]  to those businesses that meet any of the criteria set out in Article 3 of the Act, and which have been duly registered with "the Regulator". [4] Indeed, Article 7 of the Act provides that a business shall be a registered family business once it has ...

Early last month the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that the reproduction of a photo on a website, not being the website through which the rightholder initially made that photo available to the public, constitutes a new communication to the public for the purpose of determining a copyright infringement claim. The Facts:- In case C-161/17, [1] Mr Renckhoff brought proceedings before the Courts of Hamburg against the local authorities having the direct supervision of a secondary school. Mr Renckhoff was a photographer by profession and in 2009 i...

  The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has recently delivered a judgment on a preliminary reference relating to the labelling of energy-consuming products, or 'energy labels'. In case c-632/16 the Commercial Court of Antwerp, in Belgium, was faced with the following problem.  [1] [1] The Facts :- Dyson, the applicant, is a Belgian company that markets vacuum cleaners that are not fitted with a dust bag. BSH, the respondent, is a Dutch company that markets conventional vacuum cleaners, under the trade marks Siemens and Bosch, that are fitted ...