Expert Witness : World News

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has issued a report on the findings of on-the-spot inspections conducted between 15 June and 18 July on the premises of 13 Brussels-based EU institutions and bodies. The inspections formed one of the measures announced in a follow-up report in February outlining compliance by EU institutions and bodies with the 2010 EDPS Video-surveillance Guidelines.

The report, which is not published, contains recommendations for the 13 bodies on how to improve the way in which information about video-surveillance is provided to the general public, including:

• The existence, location and content of selected on-the-spot notices highlighting that the area is under surveillance.
• The availability and the content of a data protection notice at the reception or via security personnel
• The availability and the content of an online policy.

The opening day of the International Bar Association's annual conference in Dublin saw a speech by Nobel economics laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz urging lawyers worldwide to resist a diminution in access to justice.

"Inequality was growing before the financial crisis and has been exacerbated by it," he told the conference, reported by the Law Society Gazette. "In 2010, 93% of growth went to the top 1% – many of you in this room," he said, adding that the "challenge for the legal profession" is to ensure that "the promise of justice for all" does not become "justice for those that can afford it".

"For a consumer to be able to sue a foreign trader before the national courts, it is not necessary that the contract at issue was concluded at a distance."

That was the conclusion drawn from a judgement by the European Court of Justice on 6 September, following referral of a case from the Supreme Court in Austria.

It means in practice that the fact that a consumer travels to another member state to conclude a contract with a trader does not therefore prevent the courts of the consumer's member state from having jurisdiction, according to a statement from the court.

The Austrian Supreme Court, as the court of final appeal in that country, was hearing an action brought by an Austrian woman against a German motor trader.

The woman, a Ms Mühlleitner, "seeks rescission of the contract for the sale of the vehicle she bought from [the dealer] for her private use. Ms Mühlleitner came across the offer...by searching on the internet. However, to sign the contract of purchase and take delivery of the vehicle, she went to Hamburg. On her return to Austria she discovered that the vehicle was defective."

The dealers refused to repair the vehicle and disputed the jurisdiction of the Austrian courts after the subsequent legal action by Ms Mühlleitner. They argued that the contract was not 'concluded at a distance'.

The Court of Justice, however, held that, as of 2004, the "consumer's possibility of bringing proceedings before the courts of his member state against a trader domiciled in another member state is not subject to the condition that the contract was concluded at a distance".

The release issued by the court states: "EU law aims to protect the consumer, as the weaker party to the contract, in cross-border disputes by facilitating his access to the courts, in particular by geographical proximity of the court which has jurisdiction. The consumer may thus sue in his national courts a trader with whom he has concluded a contract, even if the trader is domiciled in another member state, on two conditions: first, the trader must pursue commercial or professional activities in the member state in which the consumer resides or, by any means (for example, via the internet), direct such activities to that member state and, secondly, the contract at issue must fall within the scope of such activities."

• This is a news story derived from an unofficial document issued for press use.

The American Bar Association has announced the establishment of a task force to review and make recommendations on the state of legal education and its responsiveness to the needs and opportunities of the legal market.

The Task Force on the Future of Legal Education will be chaired by recently retired Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall T Shepard (pictured). The announcement was made ahead of the ABA's annual meeting in Chicago.

ABA president William T (Bill) Robinson III said: "The growing public attention to the cost of a law school education, the uncertain job prospects for law school graduates and the delivery of legal services in a changing market warrant substantial examination and analysis by the ABA and the legal profession. Legal education must be evaluated in the context of the marketplace and the nation's and world's unprecedented challenges in an ever-more complex global economy."