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2010
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No to SOPA, no to ACTA
Jan 18, 2012
CK - Washington.

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Traffic Enforcements Cameras in Germany
Jan 08, 2012
CK - Washington.   55 years ago, German company Telefunken introduced radar equipment for the enforcement of speed limits. Later, traffic enforcement cameras automated the enforcement. The resulting disputes generated a viable market for German attorneys, specialized as Verkehrsanwalt, traffic lawyers. In the United States, a conceptual controversy erupts annually at the beginning of the year, when state assemblies gather to discuss the use of such technology.

After 55 years, the law is largely settled in Germany. In 2010, the Supreme Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe resolved one of the last major issues: Does the automatic taking of an offender's photograph violate the constitutional right to informational self-determination? In the electronic information society, the Bundesverfassungsgericht had discovered, this right represents a subset of personality rights and human dignity protected in articles I and II of the German constitution.

In the matter 2 BvR 759/10, the court recognized that such images affect that protected interest. The state may balance that concern, however, against a statutority defined, overwhelming public interest in safety. The statute authorizing speed cameras, §100h (1)(1) StPO, is constitutional, the court held on July 5, 2010.
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Email After Hours: Union Pact
Dec 23, 2011
CK - Washington.   In a possible first pact of its kind, Volkswagen and its union agreed that the company would not send emails to certain wage-earners after hours. The agreement covers VW employees using company-issue smartphones. It excludes certain managerial personnel, a December 23, 2011 report in Heise Online, VW verzichtet auf Email-Versand auf Diensthandys nach Feierabend, notes. The union deal applies only in Germany.
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German Statutes, as Amended
Dec 17, 2011
CK - Washington.   Statutes, as amended -- or law in the most current version, -- are easily found in German bookstores. Most legislative acts are federal. Publishing houses print them affordably, and the major works rest on bookshelves in homes as commonly as in law firms or libraries.

As amended, such editions may be useless in the practice of law. Frequently, issues arise long after amendments to statutes occur. Legislators in Germany appear to justify the salaries, as they do elsewhere, by adding, subtracting, replacing and just good-old amending. Formerly, codes were good for a handful of centuries; that is history. Every elected twit wants leave her mark on what used to be carved in stone, or on clay tablets. Every lobbyist expects too see something for his money.

Synoptical presentations of the statutory bodies of law are the answer. Lexetius brings that approach to the web. Print editions exist, with side-by-side columns of the law then and now, such as J. von Staudingers Kommentar zum Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuch mit Einführungsgesetz und Nebengesetzen von Hans-Wolfgang Strätz. I like Lexetius. It is plain, useful, intelligent and clear. It fits on electronically driven tablets.
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English in German Courts
Nov 05, 2011
CK - Washington.   A German contract in English often reflects nothing of the parties' intent and purpose: A high-schooler or LL.M.-graduate may have prepared the translation, and a shipment of pipe fittings turns into the supply of pipelines while a provision on independent contractors morphs into terms of employment.

Instead of legal terms well defined in German law and the foreign law that haphazardly may end up being the governing law, the unprofessional translation employs terms a teenager learned from rap music, the boss's buddy from Facebook video games and or an LL.M. student from chick flicks.

This horror scenario may soon reach the administration of justice in German courts. On November 11, 2011, the German carnival season begins. On November 9, 2011, the Berlin diet will hear from experts suggestions for a major change in the federal law on the judiciary. The experts are to explain an amendment to permit the use of English as the official language of select commercial courts in Germany.

Transblawg summarizes their arguments in favor of the change in a November 5, 2011 note, in English, Bundestag Hearing on English as Court Language. Major global concerns from Germany use these scary contracts, as does the famed small and medium corporate sector. International practitioners know the type of semi-English business and legal correspondence emanating from Germany. It is hard, respectively difficult, to see the benefit of employing a similar English in courts where precision and clarity should rule. See also Gerglish in German Courts, Jan. 2010.

Frequently, English native speakers note that English is difficult. Germans consider English easy unless they have lived in an English-speaking environment for a long time. Alas, the prevailing German perception is likely to win.
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Regressive Tariffs: Solar Feed-In Sales
Oct 30, 2011
CK - Washington.   Solar energy tariffs paid by energy concerns are about to be lowered by 15% due to the successful adoption of solar energy in Germany. The agency responsible for the oversight of various grids and nets, Bundesnetzagentur, announced a new table for feed-in tariffs that apply to the purchase of solarly-generated electrical power from non-traditional installations. The trigger for the tariff regression is the fact that increases in production capacity now exceed 5200 megawatts. A German energy blog discusses the details in English. Presently, 20% of German energy needs are met by renewable energy. The rate change will become effective on January 1, 2011.
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Easy Access in Beta: JusMeum
Oct 07, 2011
CK - Washington. Easy access to a full set of features for locating German court decisions: JusMeum, a novel database provider growing out of a social media-type exchange of information service, has it. Currently, the service offers a free two-week test of its beta service JusMeum Rechtsprechung-Pro which offers access to 300,000 decisions, printable PDFs, unlimited search results, and searches by docket number, statutory provision, term and dates. The free service, Rechtsprechung, offers the first two items and has a limited of three search results.
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Google Analytics Now Legal in Germany
Sep 15, 2011
CK - Washington.   Google and German data protection officials worked out a plan to legalize Google Analytics in Germany. There will be effects on other European nations.

The data protection official in Hamburg had argued that Analytics violated German data protection law. Google and Hamburg, acting on behalf of a group of state German data protection agencies, negotiated. On September 15, 2011, Hamburg proclaimed Google setzt Forderungen der Aufsichtsbehörden um: Google to implement demands of the monitoring authorities.

As a result of the agreement, web site operators may use Analytics without the Damocles' Sword of sanctions, users will obtain means to effectively object to the gathering of their access data, web site operators may request the deletion of the last octet of IP addresses within all of Europe, and Google will offer web site operators an agreement for the use of Analytics that complies with the German federal data protection statute and its requirements for the processing of third-party data.
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In the PC version:

The German American Law Journal has been available in an American Edition and a German edition called US-Recht auf Deutsch for many years and had been published in print in the 1990s.
Links to the PC versions:
American Edition
US-Recht auf Deutsch