I read in Blogcritics, who had it from Yahoo news, that a man has been arrested in ‘the southern German town of Fuerth’ (which is where I live) – 8 computers were taken from the house of a 25-year-old ‘computer student’ for ‘using a clone of a Napster file-sharing server to distribute over a million MP3 music files daily to some 3,000 individual users over a period of weeks’.
Incidentally, I hesitate to anglicize Fürth to Fuerth – it seems to me that the UE = Ü practice is a German one. After all, we write Zurich not Zuerich (well, I know that doesn’t prove anything.
The Fuerther Nachrichten is ignorant. It does have an article on local hunters opposing the reform of the hunting law, a subject I was thinking of writing about as a German peculiarity: ‘Die Naturschützer hatten unter anderem gefordert, die Zahl der jagdbaren Tiere auf Rotwild, Damhirsch, Sikahirsch, Reh, Gemse, Mufflon und Wildschwein einzuschränken und die Abschusspläne für so genanntes Schalenwild – dazu zählen alle Huftiere – abzuschaffen. „Diese Forderung dient erkennbar dem Zweck, aus Gründen der Waldwirtschaft das Triebe und Knospen verbeißende Rehwild auszurotten“, so Kretsch.’
(I must find a simple method of marking quotes).
The Nordbayern Infonet is also silent. Yahoo says the report came from Reuters in Berlin. All these papers say is that the football team may move up if it does well against Cologne, and that there is a new technology for cinema advertising being introduced, digital preparation (Wolf Werbung Fürth became RoWo).

While I was away, the German Law Journal appeared again. It’s a good resource to have online.
The very positive review of Basil Markesinis and Hannes Unberath, The German Law of Torts: a Comparative Treatise, ISBN 1-84113-297-7 (4th edition) reminded me what a wonderful book it is and that I never read enough of the third edition. Reading Markesinis’s faculty biography
at the University of Texas at Austin, I have a feeling he doesn’t need any advertising from me (he’s at University College London with a profile too). The book is expensive, but very full and very good. I recommend the review and will quote a small bit:
Germans are likely to learn much that is unexpected about themselves from the perspective of the foreign observer. It is understandable that the former president of the Federal Court of Justice, Walter Odersky, wrote such an appreciative, even grateful, foreword to the book: where else does German law find a platform with such a far-reaching, international impact?

While I was away, the German Law Journal appeared again. It’s a good resource to have online.
The very positive review of Basil Markesinis and Hannes Unberath, The German Law of Torts: a Comparative Treatise, ISBN 1-84113-297-7 (4th edition) reminded me what a wonderful book it is and that I never read enough of the third edition. Reading Markesinis’s faculty biography
at the University of Texas at Austin, I have a feeling he doesn’t need any advertising from me (he’s at University College London with a profile too). The book is expensive, but very full and very good. I recommend the review and will quote a small bit:
Germans are likely to learn much that is unexpected about themselves from the perspective of the foreign observer. It is understandable that the former president of the Federal Court of Justice, Walter Odersky, wrote such an appreciative, even grateful, foreword to the book: where else does German law find a platform with such a far-reaching, international impact?

I haven’t got round to a report yet, but here is a photo from beside the Hyatt Regency Hotel at Jersey City – the hotel is the building at the left.

I haven’t got round to a report yet, but here is a photo from beside the Hyatt Regency Hotel at Jersey City – the hotel is the building at the left.

This blog was mentioned on Bag & Baggage along with netbib (a librarians’ blog with some references to relevant law) and law blog.

Since there was some speculation about these all-German-language blogs, here’s a May 5th quote from law blog, together with a translation:

May 5, 2003

LAHM

Auf dem Gerichtsflur nimmt mich ein Richter zur Seite:

„Sagen sie mal, warum stimmen sie eigentlich der Einstellung nicht zu? Billiger kommt ihr Mandant in einer Hauptverhandlung garantiert nicht weg.“

Ich bin hoch erfreut, muss aber zugeben:

„Bei mir ist das Angebot nicht angekommen.“

Am nächsten Tag ruft der Richter an:

„Davon können sie ja noch gar nichts wissen. Der Brief liegt seit 4 Monaten in unserer Schreibkanzlei.“

So wie´s aussieht, muss ich nur noch 3 bis 6 Wochen warten…

LAME

A judge takes me aside in the corridor outside the courtrooms:

“Tell me, why don’t you just accept the offer to drop the charges against your client? He certainly isn’t going to do any better if the case goes to trial.”

I am delighted, but I have to admit:

“I haven’t received this offer.”

The next day, the judge phones me:

“No, you couldn’t have heard about the offer. The letter has been sitting in the court office for the past four months.”

It looks as if I only need to wait another three to six weeks now.