In April 2020, the High Court of England and Wales held in the decision of Amjad Rihan v Ernst & Young Global Limited & Others [2020] EWHC 901 that there exists a duty of care to protect whistleblowers in circumstances that fall outside the scope of statutory protection regimes.

This article then dissects this decision and discusses the scenarios in which such a duty of care exists and the narrow factual matrix that such duty may be imposed to protect whistleblowers. … More Duty of Care to Protect Whistleblowers

The Court of Appeal in Thaler v Comptroller General of Patents Trade Marks and Designs [2021] EWCA Civ 1374 answered this question by concluding that because an artificial intelligence machine is not a person, it cannot be considered as an “inventor” for the purposes of Sections 7 and 13 of the UK Patents Act. This article will provide a brief overview of the decision. … More Does the Qualification of “Inventor” under Patent Law extend to Artificial Intelligence?

The European Court of Human Rights published its judgement in the case of Norman v UK (Application no. 41387/17) on the 6th of July, 2021. Mr Robert Norman, a prison officer at Belmarsh Prison, was convicted of misconduct in public office in 2015 for providing a tabloid journalist with a range of information in exchange for money. The newspaper subsequently disclosed his name to the police in the context of an investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments by newspapers to public officials. The applicant was prosecuted and convicted of misconduct in public office. The ECtHR ruled that there was no breach of Article 7 or Article 10 of the ECHR. … More A Brief Overview of Norman v UK (Application no. 41387/17)

In its ruling on the 29th of July, the Federal Court of Justice in Germany held that Facebook’s hate speech policy is in breach of their citizens’ constitutional rights. This is a landmark decision for social media companies, especially with regards to their policing of content and the balance of fundamental rights that need to be maintained.

Although the full grounds of judgement have yet to be published, this case update will focus on the summary judgement and the rationale behind the courts decision. … More Facebook’s Hate Speech Policy – A Violation of German Constitutional Rights