Denise Howell’s Blog of the Day (via evhead.com) is Public Defender Dude. The first post , on August 6th, describes what public defenders do and sums up:

bq. The best thing about our job is that we get to tilt against windmills. We fight the power. Everyone is against us: DAs, Cops, and DAs with robes (ie – many of the Judges). Even bailiffs, court clerks, court reporters and other court staff don’t like us frequently, but few show greater disdain for us than many of our clients. They save some of their best invective for us: public offenders, public pretenders, dump trucks, wanna be DAs, etc…. The fact is, most people don’t appreciate something that is given to them for free. Legal services are no exception. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve represented someone on a serious case and they bring in some worthless lawyer to take over the case just because that lawyer is a “paid” lawyer (as if we do this for free). In the end, most of my clients end up regretting their decision.

LLRX.com is updated only occasionally now, most recently on 29th September 2003. There is an update to the English-language introduction to the Swiss legal system, which means the original file with changes highlighted. Excellent material (the English is not by a native speaker).

I was doing some investigation on whether there is an English word for Kniebeuge, the hollow behind the knee (see earlier entry on Ellenbeuge) when I came across a 2001 article by John Derbyshire in National Review Online on the topic of Anglo-Saxons and their inability to speak foreign languages.

The article was inspired by a reader’s comment, when Derbyshire recommended a German website:

bq. Read German, you say? You forget that I am an American. The Germans will damn well speak English, if they want to be understood. … We neither have the time, nor see the need, to learn languages that are destined to go the way of Latin and Sanskrit. We have people to do that for us, should the need arise…

Derbyshire has encountered, at school and later, French, German, Latin, Russian, Cantonese, Cambodian, and Mandarin.

The new German law of unfair competition has incorporated into statute a lot of case law (section 3 of the Act Against Unfair Competition / Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb, UWG) gave rise to a great deal of case law, but fortunately we now have Internet searches to help pin it down. Further to an earlier entry, Handakte WebLAWg and Vertretbar.de recently referred to JurPC, an online journal devoted on 26th September solely to the law reform (all articles by Matthias Pierson).

I presume this page will soon be updated with other materials, so here are links to a couple of the articles, all in German: a survey of the new law (Schnellübersicht), a very useful synopsis (Synopse), and a table giving the elements of the new section 3 (Tatbestandsmerkmale).

The law blog reports (in German) that it’s now to be easier to set off language courses in other EU countries against tax in Germany. The source is beck-aktuell. This is based on a decision of the German Federal Tax Court (Bundesfinanzhof) of 13th June 2002. (If the link doesn’t work, search past decisions for 13th June 2002).

Up till now, it has automatically been assumed that a language course abroad was a private matter.

The decision also applies to Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

Incidentally, when I searched for Bundesfinanzministerium in Google, I got the following near the top of the list – it leads through to ebay:

bq. bundesfinanzministerium – Infos, Produkte, Angebote! – … – [ Translate this page ]
bundesfinanzministerium. bundesfinanzministerium – Wir suchen für Sie
nach interessanten Seiten und Angeboten: … Bundesfinanzministerium .. …
www.shopping-jl.de/bundesfinanzministerium_88.html – 10k – Cached – Similar pages