Handakte WebLAWg quotes the Kurier reporting that the people’s advocates are getting more work, or at least were in 2002, as the result of a TV series about them. The Volksanwalt (Hausmaninger in The Austrian Legal System – ISBN 3-214-00239-2 – calls them People’s Advocates) is a kind of ombudsperson introduced in 1977. Ombudsmen or ombudspersons act as intermediaries between the public and the administration. There are three Volksanwälte, one from each of the three strongest parties in parliament; they serve for six years and can be reelected once. The Volksanwaltschaft/People’s Advocates’ Office is a federal office intended to help the legislature supervise the administration. About one-third of last year’s complaints from citizens were outside their jurisdiction, however.
There isn’t anything quite like this in Germany. Some Länder have Bürgerbeauftragte: Rhineland-Palatine has had one since 1974 (German); and there is a Petitionsausschuss (German), a committee on public petitions to which people can apply on federal level.

For any language enthusiasts who have read this far, there is a Volksanwaltschaft in Südtirol / South Tyrol too, and there is a website giving the details in German, Italian and Ladin. I heard of a child in South Tyrol who spoke Ladin at home, German at kindergarten and Italian everywhere else. Here is what is apparently a Ladin news site (but I’m open to correction here).

Slightly off topic, but now it is lawful in the Netherlands to buy small amounts of cannabis for medicinal purposes, perhaps some light should be cast on the difficulty of getting superior tomatoes – at least in Britain. The Independent reported on August 19th. I think things are slightly better in Germany, though I recall that manufactum sometimes sells potatoes ‘for cooking only’ that are clearly seed potatoes of a variety of obscure types.
Here is a photo of some nice tomatoes in an Italian supermarket.

HandAkte WebLAWg links to a superb Irish law portal, at University College, Cork. It has a wide variety of links, including a mailing list that has archives dating back to 1994, events, legislation, and the governments of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Law blog links to Bild Zeitung’s collection of Die schrägsten Vorschriften Deutschlands – Germany’s weirdest official regulations. Here’s an example:

bq. „Der Tod stellt aus versorgungsrechtlicher Sicht die stärkste Form der Dienstunfähigkeit dar.“
(Unterrichtsblätter für die Bundeswehrverwaltung)

bq. “From the point of view of pensions law, death is the most extreme form of unfitness for work.” (Teaching materials for the German Federal Armed Forces Administration)

EurActiv.com is a portal with news and documentation on EU policy. It is intended to be independent and has a variety of funding.

This comes from www.llrx.com, links section. LLRX also has an article on Blogs for Public Lawyers, by Jerry Lawson, containing advice on starting a blog, and an Internet Round Table (introduced by Dennis Kennedy) with Jerry Lawson, Brenda Howard, Dennis Kennedy, Ernest Svenson and Tom Mighell, on blogs and law firm marketing.

There has often been speculation about the names of IKEA furniture (especially about the desk Jerker and the bed Gutvik). An article in German in Stern reveals a surprising amount of planning.

Thus bathroom items are named after Scandinavian lakes, rivers and bays; sets of bookcases after occupations; dining tables and chairs after Finnish placenames; carpets after Danish placenames; and much more. There’s a long list on the second page.

ADDED LATER
See overleaf for a summary in English. Continue reading →