(Via Handakte WebLAWg)

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung has an article today (Borer gegen Burda und Bertelsmann) on the failure of the former Swiss ambassador to Germany and his American wife to obtain damages against German magazines in a US court. Borer’s behaviour as ambassador was not regarded as appropriate in some Swiss quarters, and when he was the victim of a fabricated claim that he had had an affair with a topless model, his career came to an end. The suit was rejected because it had insufficient connections to Texas and Texas law, and the appeal was unsuccessful. This was reported in July 2005 in the US, but it’s interesting to see it from the Swiss angle.

On Borer and Shawne Fielding-Borer, a Time article, Boring, He’s Not (‘Flamboyant and Swiss are adjectives not often found in close proximity to each other…’)

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit judgment (where we learn, inter alia, that only 70 copies of Bunte and sixty of Stern make it to Texas).

German report of July 2005, including translation of headnotes of case (‘Wie ein Vertreter der „Kanzlei Professor Schweizer“ sagte, sind die beiden Urteile weit über den Einzellfall hinaus für alle Medien von großer Bedeutung’).

The result might have been different if the parties had genuinely lived in Texas. The NZZ writes:

bq. US-Gerichte fühlen sich offensichtlich nicht schon dann berufen, über ausländische Presseberichte zu Affären und angeblichen Affären zu richten, wenn eine Betroffene im Gerichtsstaat aufwuchs und dort Misswahlen gewann.

bq. Es ist davon auszugehen, dass künftige Opfer missliebiger Presseberichte, die sich von den Vorzügen des US-Gerichtssystems angezogen fühlen, diese Entscheide sorgfältig studieren und Sachverhalt und Argumentation darauf einstellen werden. Medienunternehmen sollten sich darum auch künftig sorgfältig mit der «Anziehungskraft» von US-Gerichten auseinandersetzen.

Authors:

bq. Dr. Stefan Liniger ist Rechtsanwalt bei Bär & Karrer, Zürich, Dr. Stephan Wilske ist Rechtsanwalt bei Gleiss Lutz, Stuttgart.

Deutsche Welle has an article in English on German literary translators, with a picture of Harry Rowohlt in his Lindenstraße role.

The DenverChannel, via lawblog:

bq. TACOMA, Wash. — A judge overseeing a manslaughter case embarrassed prosecutors and upset the victim’s family when she called for a Super Bowl cheer for the Seattle Seahawks before the start of the sentencing hearing.
As Judge Beverly G. Grant took the bench Friday, she asked everyone in court to say “Go Seahawks.” Dissatisfied with the low volume of the response, she told them to try again.

After this, she heard statements and sentenced the defendant to thirteen-and-a-half years’ imprisonment.

For those who don’t read Language Log: the Supreme Court has a relief of Mohammed (picture here).

Im Jahr 1997 baten Muslime das Supreme Court der Vereinigten Staaten, ihr Reliefbild von Mohammed durch Sandstrahlen zu entfernen, aber Rehnquist lehnte ab: das Bild ehre Mohammed (unter anderen) als Gesetzgeber.

The BBC reports that an identikit picture of a burglary suspect looked so strange that the victim of a robbery feared it would not help find him.

I see this is referred to as an ‘e-fit image’. Google reveals the superordinate term facial composite, and sub-categories identikit, photofit, e-fit. Sorry, that should be E-fit – because it’s a trademark. Here is more:

bq. The composite facial system currently favoured by the U.K. police, and used in 18 other countries, is known as ‘E-FIT’ (Electronic-Facial Identification Technique). Despite the major improvements achieved over earlier systems such as IdentiKit and PhotoFit, some inherent weaknesses have been identified in the E-FIT system. The E-FIT system is fundamentally based on the selection of individual facial features (eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows etc) from a large library that are electronically “blended” to make the composite image. There is, however, a considerable body of evidence to suggest that the task of face recognition and synthesis does not lend itself to simple decomposition into features and is at least partly, a global process

Ein Phantombild (siehe BBC-Bericht) wurde kritisiert, da der Einbrecher “nicht ganz so merkwürdig aussah … Auf dem Bild hat er nur ein halbes Ohr, aber das stimmt nicht. Und sein Schnurrbart sah anders aus … anscheinend hatte die Polizei auf ihrem Rechner nur lange Schnurrbärte, und sie musste die Seiten abschneiden…Jemand, der so aussieht, habe ich nie in Stalham oder sonstwo in meinem ganzen Leben gesehen”. Die Polizei weigerte sich, das Bild zu kommentieren, da es die Untersuchung gefährden könne.

Thanks, as usual, to kalebeul.

I am a bit remiss in keeping up with Italian weblogs, apart from Taccuino di Traduzione and Luxus Linguae (very tough the latter), since what Italian I know was largely picked up listening to Wolferl.

I noticed that fogliedivite has stopped, but there is a newish group translators’ blog, traslochi.