The English intellectual property law firm Blair & Co. has teamed up (not merged) with the patent attorneys Marks & Clerk. It now calls itself Marks & Clerks Solicitors (no relation to me). Joint website here.
According to Edward Fennell’s In the City section of the Times Online Tuesday law section (free registration required):

bq. The two firms regularly work together. Insiders suggest that the rebranding, unprecedented in the UK, stems from European and US clients who prefer a one-stop-shop for their IP and trademark services. My view is that the name “Blair” is no longer quite the selling point as once it was for anything to do with the law.

Beim Übersetzen ins Englische des Wortes Vertragsstrafe ist Vorsicht geboten: liquidated damages sind erlaubt, a contractual penalty nicht. Daher wird Vertragsstrafe oft mit liquidated damages übersetzt. Natürlich sollte es dem Gericht nicht auf das Wort, sondern auf den Inhalt ankommen, aber das Gericht soll lieber gar nicht auf die Idee kommen.

The German word Vertragsstrafe is often translated as liquidated damages, because in common-law jurisdictions liquidated damages are permitted, whereas a contractual penalty is prohibited. At the request of a client, I once wrote ‘a contractual penalty (Vertragsstrafe, permitted under German law)’, since after all the contracts I translate remain subject to German law. But the argument ‘It doesn’t matter how you translate it, because only German law applies’ is not a good one if the translation is going to be seen by English or U.S. lawyers.

Das Thema bespricht die deutsche Ausgabe vom German American Law Journal blog anhand eines Falls in Arizona.
The German edition of the German American Law Journal Blog discusses this with reference to Winthrop Resources Corporation v. Eaton Hydraulics, Inc., AZ: 03-1790.

Eaton als Mieter von Ausrüstungen beantragte, die Liquidated Damages Klausel aus dem Mietvertrag nach erfolgter Vertragsverletzung für nichtig zu erklären, weil sie wegen ihrer Höhe eine Penalty Clause darstelle. Das Gericht lehnte diese Auffassung ab. Eine Liquidated Damages Klausel dürfe selbst das Fünffache des beim Vertragsbruch messbaren Schadens ausmachen, ohne zu einer Penalty Clause zu werden. Der Sinn der Klausel bestehe darin, beiden Vertragsparteien zu ermöglichen, einen etwaigen Schaden schon bei Vertragsschluss zu schätzen und gerecht auszugleichen.

The court held that where the precise amount of damages is hard to calculate, the fact that the liquidated damages were so much higher than the actual damage does not prove that this was a penalty clause.

The GALJ adds that the court of second instance refuses to accept new evidence because it deals only with an appeal on a point of law (German Revision).

Das Urteil spricht auch andere, im deutsch-amerikanischen Verhältnis gelegentlich missverstandene Fragen an. So lehnt die zweite Instanz die Verwertung neuer Beweismaterials ab, weil diese Instanz lediglich eine Revision, also eine reine Rechtsprüfung, zulässt.

Das Wort liquidated (liquidated damages: bezifferter Schaden(s)ersatz)

The word liquidated may be mystifying to some. In this context it means ‘agreed in advance’. Liquidated damages of £1000 per day means the exact sum has been decided in advance. In England and Wales we used to talk about liquidated and unliquidated claims: if you sued someone for a precise sum of money, it was liquidated, but this did not imply any agreement between the parties. It’s now called a specified claim (see court service glossary).

Click to enlarge/Anklicken um zu vergrößern

(Über Udo Vetter vom law blog): Ein Artikel in der Süddeutschen Zeitung berichtet:

bq. Prozess gegen R. Kelly vor dem Aus
Zwar gibt es Beweisfotos, die den US-Popsänger beim Sex mit Minderjährigen zeigen – aber im Verfahren gegen ihn dürfen sie nicht verwendet werden.

law blog vergleicht dies mit der Situation in Deutschland, wo Hausdurchsuchungen manchmal für rechtswidrig befunden werden, jedoch kein Verwertungsverbot daraus folgt.

law blog links to an article in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

Here’s an English version in Rolling Stone:

bq. R. Kelly scored a legal victory in his Florida child pornography case this week when a circuit judge ruled that photos of the singer allegedly having sex with an underage girl were illegally seized and inadmissible as evidence.

law blog points out that in Germany, even if searches are declared illegal, the evidence obtained illegally is normally accepted in court. This is because the court has to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages on both sides (Gesamtabwägung). The procedural rights of the defendant are weighed against the state’s interest in punishing. The courts, says Udo Vetter of law blog, use phrases like ‘considerable criminal energy’ (‘erhebliche kriminelle Energie’) and ‘gravity of likely sentence’ (‘Höhe der Strafdrohung’) to justify using the evidence against the defendant. As a result, searches of homes and businesses continue apace, the police secure in the knowledge that the evidence will be admitted in court.

Hermann Göring war nicht nur für das deutsche Jagdgesetz verantwortlich, er hat auch den Waschbär in Deutschland eingeführt:

bq. Waschbär (Procyon lotor)
Wurde durch Anweisung des Feldmarschall Göring zur Erweiterung und Bereicherung des jagdbaren Wildes 1929 in Hessen ausgewildert. Zusätzlich gelangten aus Farmen zahlreiche Vertreter in die freie Wildbahn.

The Independent on Sunday reports on the raccoon, which was introduced into Germany by Goering (the German article linked above says 1929):

bq. It was in 1934 that the Luftwaffe chief came up with the idea of releasing a pair of raccoons into the wild, claiming he wanted to spice up the Third Reich’s flora and fauna. Clearly, he was unaware of the havoc his decision would wreak almost three-quarters of a century later. …

bq. “It’s the same density as you would find in the urban raccoon’s natural habitat, in North American cities like Toronto or Washington,” Dr Hohmann said. He estimates that at least half of Kassel’s residents regularly encounter the creatures. Curious and unafraid of humans, they rifle through rubbish bins and sneak into houses for food.

bq. “Their usual trick is to climb through cat flaps and set up home in a loft,” Dr Hohmann said. “Often people will return from holiday to find they have a new lodger.”

Vor der Hinrichtung in den USA darf der Gefangene sich eine letzte Mahlzeit nach Wunsch bestellen. In dem Observer stehen ein Artikel zum Thema und ein Interview (auf Englisch) mit Brian Price, der elf Jahre lang die Henkersmahlzeiten in Texas zubereitet hat.
Ein Beschreibung von Brian Prices Buch auf Deutsch befindet sich bei “Kuriose Geschichten”:

bq. Crockett/USA (AP) ‘Galgensoße’ und ‘Leichenstarren-Reis’: Das sind nur zwei von insgesamt 42 Rezepten, die Gefängniskoch Brian Price in seinem neuen Kochbuch zusammengestellt hat. Sie haben eines gemeinsam: Es handelt sich um Henkersmahlzeiten, die Häftlinge im Gefängnis von Huntsville im US-Staat Texas vor ihrer Hinrichtung erhielten.

The Observer discusses the last meals ordered by prisoners on death row in the USA, and adds an interview with Brian Price, the chef who was responsible for last meals in Texas for eleven years.

Price was a prisoner himself – traditionally, prisoners with shorter sentences cooked the meals.

bq. Price says inmates generally choose food unique to their culture. ‘Mexican guys want Mexican food. The black guys generally want everything from ‘chitlins’ [stuffed pig intestines] to fried chicken and watermelon.

Chitlings sound close to Helmut Kohl’s favourite.

bq. ‘One man ordered butter beans which was difficult to prepare, but it was something his mum made him when he was a kid and I knew it would take him back to a time when it was peaceful. So I cooked them real slow. There was this little old black guy – a prisoner named Monroe who walked up and smelt the cooking and said: “Mmm, I love butter beans, who they for?” and I said, “Well, Monroe, they’re for the guy they’re fixin’ to kill”. And he said: “Mmmm, don’t want no dead man’s beans, I got enough problems”.’

Price has written a book, Meals to Die For, which is said to suffer from an overdose of gallows humour, with recipe titles such as ‘Gallows gravy’ and ‘Rice rigor mortis’. Some discussion of this, to which Price contributes, on the weblog Crossing the Rubicon2.

See also the weblog Dead Man Eating.