The following is a guest post by Felix Beulke, summer intern at the Global Legal Research Directorate, Law Library of Congress. It follows a blog post by Clare Feikert-Ahalt, FALQs: Brexit Referendum. On June 23, 2016 the United Kingdom held a referendum on whether to leave or to remain in the European Union (so called …
Conscription in the German Federal Republic began on July 21, 1956 when the German Compulsory Military Service Act (Wehrpflichtgesetz) entered into force. It lasted for 55 years until, on July 1, 2011, the German Bundestag (parliament) decided to suspend conscription and convert the German Armed Forces into an army of professional and volunteer soldiers. Instead of …
This is a guest post by Nicolas Boring who has previously written for the blog on a variety of topics including FALQs: Freedom of Speech in France, How Sunday Came to be a Day of Rest in France, Napoleon Bonaparte and Mining Rights in France, French Law – Global Legal Collection Highlights, and co-collaborated on the post, Does the …
When President Obama announced the nomination of Merrick B. Garland, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on March 16, 2016, it garnered a lot of media attention. Thinking about my native Germany, I realized that I could not remember hearing or reading …
On April 23, 2016, breweries all over Germany and particularly in the Free State of Bavaria will celebrate the 500 year anniversary of the enactment of the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot (beer purity law); a regulation that mandates which ingredients are allowed for the brewing of beer. The Reinheitsgebot is one of the oldest food regulations in …
To “Uber” is now a verb. This development reflects the rapid expansion of the mobile ride-hailing company Uber in the United States and the rest of the world. However, in many European jurisdictions, and particularly in Germany, Uber has run into regulatory roadblocks. Uber offers “a technology platform that enables users of Uber’s mobile applications …
I recently returned from the annual conference of the International Association of Law Libraries (IALL), which took place in Berlin, Germany from September 20 to September 24, 2015. This year’s conference, “Within and in between: German Legal Tradition in Times of Internationalization and Beyond,” was held at the Berlin State Library (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin), which is …
The emergence of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) is a recent phenomenon. E-cigarettes are battery-operated products that typically resemble conventional cigarettes. Instead of tobacco, they contain cartridges filled with liquids that are generally composed of nicotine, flavor, and other chemicals. During consumption, the liquids are heated and thereby vaporize. Because e-cigarettes are relatively new and potential risks are still …
This blog post is part of our Frequently Asked Legal Questions series. On July 12, 2015, the euro-area member states agreed in principle to start negotiating a third loan package with Greece. The loan will be provided by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which was set up in 2012 by the euro-area member states. Yesterday I looked …