The celebratory finale of this year's ILS Lunch Seminars
This academic year, researchers from both inside and outside of Leiden Law School took the opportunity to inform the interested public about their ongoing research during the monthly ILS Lunch Seminars. On Thursday 14 June, the last lunch seminar before the summer break took place. The festive ending of this year’s lunches was brought to a successful conclusion by two professors from different legal backgrounds: Pim Rank and Barend Barentsen.
Prof. Pim Rank commenced with the first presentation, titled: “Custody and Asset Segregation under MiFID II”. Before the digital era, securities used to be held in a box under your bed; nowadays they are often safeguarded by (bank) investment firms. Under the recast Markets and Financial Instruments Directive (‘MiFID II’), these investment firms will be obliged to make adequate arrangements so as to safeguard the ownership rights of clients in order to avoid the securities falling within the assets in case of a bankruptcy. As such, the client assets will be protected from the so called ‘intermediary risk’. In his presentation, Rank identified the segregation of securities as a typical example of an ‘Interaction between Legal Systems’ cooperation mechanism. Whilst public law describes that asset segregation must be effectuated, it is up to national private law to accomplish this.
Prof. Barend Barentsen concluded the ILS Lunch Seminar-series of this academic year with his presentation on: “Public sector reform in the Netherlands: Much ado about nothing?” Historically, it was left to the public sector whether workers were unilaterally appointed or were given an employer contract. Since most of the differences between the two have grown together, the Dutch legislator decided it was time for a more standardized approach. In his very lively presentation, Barentsen explained how in the near future most of the workers in the public sector will no longer carry the title ‘ambtenaar’. Their public appointment (‘aanstelling’) will be converted into an employer contract from 1 January 2020. This means that most of the ‘ambtenaren’ (including our professors) will become ‘normal’ employees. Although this sounds like a major change, the biggest adjustments will lie in the relevant procedural aspects. Not administrative, but civil law will be applicable for these new contracts, which will mean among other things that the six weeks term related to the ‘besluit’ does not apply anymore.
We would like to extend our thanks again to all of those who participated in our program this year. The ILS Lunch Seminar-series will continue in September. Do you want to present yourself and your research in one of our monthly seminars? Do not hesitate to contact our ILS student assistant! More information on ILS 2.0 can be found on our website.