S.A. Kruisinga

Gender Diversity on Corporate Boards in the Netherlands: Waiting on the World to Change

In the Netherlands, increasing the number of women on corporate boards is considered to be, first and foremost, the responsibility of companies themselves and the Dutch legislator has so far been hesitant in introducing binding gender quotas for companies. However, in January 2013 the legislator introduced gender quotas (30%) for the corporate boards of ‘larger companies’ given the low number of women on corporate boards. These quotas were of a ‘soft’ nature since no strict sanctions would be applied if a company failed to comply with the said target. The law was also temporary in nature and expired automatically on 1 January 2016 because of the legislator’s expectations that the quotas would no longer be necessary after 2016. A proposal has been submitted to Parliament to prolong the aforementioned law for another four years. However, this proposal does not provide for any real sanctions for non-compliance with the quotas introduced. The Second and First Chamber of Parliament adopted this proposal without any further discussion on January 19, 2017 and February 7, 2017, respectively.

Contracts for the International Sale of Goods : Recent Developments at the International and European Level

In the globalizing economy, national borders seem to have disappeared. However, when determining which law will apply to a commercial transaction, the opposite seems true. In 1980, the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (hereafter the CISG) was specifically drafted to apply to contracts for the international sale of goods. Recently, the European Commission also published a document containing provisions that can apply to contracts for the international sale of goods: the Proposal for a Regulation on a Common European Sales Law. This paper compares the scope of application of these legal regimes, it compares the regulation of standard terms in both regimes and addresses the provisions in the EU Regulation on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (Brussels I), which are of relevance for contracts for the international sale of goods which do not contain a valid dispute settlement clause.