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The European Court of Human Rights has elected on 1.April 2019 Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos (Greek) as its new President. He will take office on 5 th May 2019. Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos succeeds Guido Raimondi (Italy).   Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos was born on 9 May 1960 in Athens, Greece. He is Judge of the European Court of Human Rights since 18 May 2011 He was elected as President of Section of the European Court of Human Rights since 1 February 2017 and Vice-President of the Court since 1 May 2017 . Mr Sicilianos is also author of five monographs, editor or co-editor of 14 books and author of about 100 articles and studies in general international law and the international protection of human rights, in French, English and Greek. Read more here

In judgment in the case of Rustamzade v. Azerbaijan (application no. 38239/16) the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been: a violation of Article 5 § 1 (right to liberty and security) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The case concerned a student’s arrest and detention in 2013 for allegedly filming some friends dancing in a park and uploading the video of it to YouTube. He was charged with hooliganism and spent one year in pre-trial detention. He was convicted in 2014 as charged, as well as of mass disorder and arms offences which had in the meantime been added to the list of charges, and sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment. The Court found in particular that the facts relied on in the domestic proceedings could not reasonably be considered to constitute criminal behaviour as defined under domestic law or as interpreted by the higher courts. Mr Rustamzade had therefore been arrested and detained without a reasonable suspicion that he had

Judgment of ECJ in Case C-118/17 Zsuzsanna Dunai v ERSTE Bank Hungary Zrt. : The Hungarian legislation excluding the retroactive cancellation of a loan contract denominated in a foreign currency which includes an unfair term relating to the exchange-rate risk is contrary to EU law. The cancellation of the contract must be possible where it cannot continue to exist without the unfair term. In May 2007, Mrs Zsuzsanna Dunai concluded with ERSTE Bank Hungary, a bank incorporated under Hungarian law, a loan contract denominated in Swiss francs (CHF). Under the contract, the loan was to be advanced to the borrower in Hungarian florints (HUF) and the conversion of CHF into HUF was to be made by applying the CHF-HUF exchange-rate based on the buying rate practiced by the bank on the day of the provision of the loan. The contract provided in addition that the loan was to be repaid in HUF and that the amount of the repayments would be calculated on the basis of the CHF-HUF exchange-rate

By George Kazoleas, Senior Associate Lawyer at Dionysiou & Partners LLC (Cyprus) The EU Regulations clarifying the rules applicable to property regimes for international married couples or registered partnerships apply from 29 January 2019. Τhese are the Regulations (EU) 2016/1103 of 24 June 2016 implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of jurisdiction, applicable law and the recognition and enforcement of decisions in matters of matrimonial property regimes and (EU) 2016/1104 of 24 June 2016 implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of jurisdiction, applicable law and the recognition and enforcement of decisions in matters of the property consequences of registered partnerships. The regulations establish clear rules in cases of divorce or death and bring an end to parallel and possibly conflicting proceedings in various Member States, for instance on property or bank accounts. In short, they bring more legal clarity for international couples [1] . As regards th

By Dimitra Mousioli, Greek Family Lawyer and Mediator Dr Seuss, the famous writer gave us a very enlightening story of how people behave in a conflict. In that story he demonstrates how a stubborn "North-going Zax" and an equal stubborn "South-going Zax" were keep arguing of who would move away from the path so the other one would pass. Sitting firmly in their "position" the two angry Zax were leaving the life passing by without even noticing it. All their energy was focused on their opponent and their pride. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZmZzGxGpSs ) That conflict mindset is quite familiar to me as a family mediator when parents first enter into a mediation process. And, despite their hostile attitude, my job is to help them resolve their conflicts in the most amicable way and try to move on with their lives outside the painful and costly court procedure. But is conflict necessarily a threat, where we always have to act with the primitiv

by Efi Thoma, Lawyer LL.M. Data is incontestably the new gold! In the new digital era, personal data of individuals is being collected, processed, and transferred around the globe from companies and organizations involved in this process, without the individuals’ prior knowledge and explicit consent. The companies and organizations that collect and use such data, have a competitive advantage and strengthen their market position by analyzing this data. Data may be even sold to third parties worldwide, without neither the prior knowledge of the individuals concerned, nor their “unambiguous” consent. The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) constitutes a huge breakthrough in privacy laws, leading to a drastic transformation of the privacy landscape on a global scale. It is not just the GDPR large fines in cases of breaches or serious non-compliance that make the difference, it is the new culture of awareness that is being established regarding personal, and namely sensitiv