The case of so-called “slow judge” Thomas Schulte-Kellinghaus, a judge at the Higher Regional Court Karlsruhe (OLG Karlsruhe), Germany, has kept the courts busy since 2012. And there does not seem to be an end in sight. In 2012, he was reprimanded by the then-President of the Higher Regional Court for “not properly executing his official …
Moin (“hello” in Low German)! Today, September 26, 2018, is the European Day of Languages. The European Day of Languages celebrates “linguistic diversity in Europe and promote[s] language learning.” In 2001, the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (CoE) jointly organized the European Year of Languages, which turned out to be so successful that …
The following is a guest post by Johannes Jäger, a foreign law intern working in the Global Legal Research Directorate of the Law Library of Congress. I recently read an op-ed in the New York Times in which the author passionately advocated for the introduction of “Demeny voting” in the United States. The concept behind this term, named after the demographer …
Today, March 30, 2018, is Good Friday, a day on which Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Good Friday is an official public holiday in Germany; however it is also one of the “silent public holidays.” Other days on which a silent public holiday is observed include All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, and …
The blog post describes the relationship between church and state in Germany and focuses on the status of religious societies as corporations under public law and religious classes in public schools.
On July 14, 1987, the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) rendered two decisions that paved the way to allowing attorney advertising in Germany. Nicknamed the “Bastille decisions” because of the date and their ”revolutionary character,” the decisions allowed attorneys for the first time to advertise their services to the public on a regular basis although several …