Technology and digitalization are changing the way we pay. The COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the trend away from cash to digital payments. Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, are experiencing an all-time high. Central banks are taking note. On October 20, 2020, the Central Bank of The Bahamas launched the first worldwide retail central bank digital …
This year, Switzerland celebrates 50 years of women’s suffrage. In a referendum held on February 7, 1971, 65.7 % of (male) voters approved the right of Swiss women to vote and stand for election at the federal level. As a result, article 74 of the Swiss Constitution was amended to state in paragraph 1: Bei …
The following is a joint guest post by Elizabeth Boomer, an international law consultant, and George Sadek, a foreign law specialist, from the Global Legal Research Directorate of the Law Library of Congress. On March 29, 2021, the engineers of the Suez Canal Authority were finally able to restore passage through the Suez Canal after a 1,300-foot, 220,000-ton …
The following is a guest post by Viktoria Simone Fritz, a foreign law intern working with Foreign Law Specialist Jenny Gesley at the Global Legal Research Directorate of the Law Library of Congress. Wouldn’t it be great to just put all documents submitted and produced in a specific legal dispute into a machine, wait a few seconds – or let’s …
This month, the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH)—Germany’s supreme court for civil and criminal cases—is celebrating its 70th anniversary. It was established on October 1, 1950, and immediately started hearing cases as it took over the case files from the German Supreme Court for the British Zone (Oberster Gerichtshof für die Britische Zone, …
Unlike most countries, Austria does not have just one constitutional document, like the Constitution of the United States for example, but several documents that have constitutional status. Of these documents, the most important one is the Austrian Federal Constitutional Law (Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz). It was adopted by the Constituent National Assembly on October 1, 1920—100 years ago today—and entered into force …
Are you looking for a legitimate reason to browse adorable dog pictures at work? Well, this blog post might just be what you were looking for! In December 2019, the Golden Retriever “Watson” started his work as a “justice dog” in the German state of Baden-Württemberg as part of a pilot project. Justice dogs are trained …
