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Posted by: Jenny Gesley
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 …
Posted in: Global Law, In the News
Posted by: Jenny Gesley
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 …
Posted in: Global Law, Guest Post
Posted by: Jenny Gesley
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 …
Posted in: Global Law
Posted by: Jenny Gesley
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.
Posted in: Global Law
Posted by: Jenny Gesley
The blog post describes the regulation of names in Germany.
Posted in: Global Law
Posted by: Jenny Gesley
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 …
Posted in: Global Law
Posted by: Jenny Gesley
In 2015, there were slightly over 17 million people in Germany with a “migrant background”, accounting for 21% of the country’s total population. A person with a “migrant background” is defined by the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) as someone who was not born a German citizen or who has at least one parent who was not …
Posted in: Global Law, Law Library
Posted by: Jenny Gesley
In the summer of 2016, a little known provision of the German criminal code received international attention when it was invoked by the Turkish government on behalf of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who felt insulted by a poem written by the German satirist Jan Böhmermann. According to section 103 of the German Criminal Code, …
Posted in: Global Law, In the News
Posted by: Jenny Gesley
On my recent visit to Düsseldorf, Germany, I could not stop my nerdy lawyer self from visiting the Administrative Court of Düsseldorf (Verwaltungsgericht Düsseldorf). The Administrative Court in Düsseldorf is the court of first instance in administrative matters and handles all kinds of non-constitutional public law matters. Examples include disputes over building permits, access to public institutions and …
Posted in: Global Law, Pic of the Week