Germany involves laypersons in the criminal justice system in the form of Schöffen. A Schöffe – lay judge, lay assessor – is attached to a particular panel for two years and sits a couple of times a month, as far as I recall. The most serious cases are tried by a panel of three professional judges and two lay judges, and four of them have to agree. That’s only one example of the kinds of panels with lay judges. A new generation of Schöffen are just starting this January.

One of them, Bernd Ramm (64), put an ad in the Berliner Morgenpost on Tuesday announcing he is going to do what he can to ensure punishment and deterrence take precedence over resocialization:

bq. “Die lasche Handhabung der Justizbehörden erweckt bei vielen Menschen den Anschein, als seien die Kriminellen und nicht die Geschädigten die Opfer der Gesellschaft”, sagte Ramm. Als Schöffe wolle er künftig mitwirken, daß bei schweren Verbrechen die Abschreckung und nicht die Resozialisierung in den Blickpunkt der Richter gelange. Als Beispiel nennt der Akademische Direktor an der Berliner Charité in seiner Anzeige die Verurteilung eines Täters zu 18 Monaten Bewährung, nachdem er ein 13 jähriges Mädchen vergewaltigt hatte.

It’s difficult to discuss these things without concrete examples. I don’t know the circumstances of the rape case in question. – We’ll also have to see if Schramm is now allowed to sit. Even if he does sit (February 4th is the first possible date, apparently), lawyers would challenge the court for bias.

From Die Welt via Handakte WebLAWg.

Zompist (Mark Rosenfelder?) says:

bq. In 1855 two Portuguese translators, José da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino, produced an English phrasebook so unbelievably bad that it was reprinted for half a century as a masterpiece of hilarity, under the title English as She is Spoke. Paul Collins of McSweeney’s Books has reprinted a selection from it, and it’s well worth picking up.
I thought it would be interesting to compare Fonseca and Carolino’s translations with Babelfish’s… consider it a test of the capacity of artificial stupidity.

Via the Baldie.

An example (Babelfish did quite well):

bq. Ainda não é tempo delas; mas os damascos brevemente estarão maduros.
It isn’t the season for them; but the apricots will soon be ripe.
ES: It is not the season yet; but here is some peaches what does ripen at the eye sight.
B: Still it is not time of them; but the damson plums briefly will be mature.

Tom Reynolds (not his real name) blogs his life with the London Ambulance Service (or whatever it’s called) in Random Acts of Reality. Yesterday he was interviewed on a Radio Scotland show about his blog, which has about 5,000 readers: a good interview about an addictive blog.

Tom’s entries on the radio show: before and after.
A link to the relevant part of the programme – this will expire next Monday when the programme is replaced online by the next one.

You can hear the presenter, Gary Robertson’s, Scottish accent and Tom’s London one very nicely at the beginning. And the villain Bob, surely an actor employed to criticize the blog, has an upper-class English accent (which doesn’t mean he isn’t Scottish born and bred – the public school set don’t usually have a Scots accent, or used not to). The other two speakers also sound English, but not so much like the Queen.

Die Zisterzienser-Mönche von der Insel Caldey vor der walisischen Küste schweigen meistens, doch haben sie ihr Schweigen unterbrochen (es ist in dringenden Fällen erlaubt) um sich in einem Rechtsstreit um ungerechtfertigte Entlassung zu verteidigen. (Ihr Online-Shop verkauft u.a. Lavendelwasser über Manufactum).

The monks of Caldey Island have broken their silence to defend themselves against an action for unfair dismissal (Independent article only available for payment; Telegraph; blogger’s visit).

bq. An order of Cistercian monks in a remote island community broke their vow of silence yesterday to deny claims that they had unfairly dismissed a couple who had worked for them for 22 years.

bq. One of the reasons that 60- year-old Andrew McHardy was sacked, they insisted, was that he had a drink problem. The monks said they were in an ideal position to know – two of them were former members of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Anonymous and silent? At all events, they make perfume and chocolate rather than alcohol.

bq. Under cross-examination from John Bradbury, a solicitor from the Haverfordwest Citizens’ Advice Bureau, Bro O’Brien agreed Mr and Mrs McHardy had not been given a written contract.

Presumably they didn’t even get an oral one.

But apparently it isn’t really a vow of silence, just a vow to speak only when necessary (this would probably amount to the same thing in my case).

Schade!

Einige Versuche mit der Wayback Machine waren enttäuschend (URL war http://legamedia net/portal/start.php/).

Eine französische Diplomdolmetscherin ist angeblich in Germersheim ermordet worden, berichtet Richard Schneider im Nachrichtenportal beim Übersetzerportal:

bq. Eine in Germersheim (Rheinland-Pfalz) wohnende Diplom-Dolmetscherin ist am 03.01.2005 am späten Abend an der Bahnstrecke Germersheim – Bellheim in Höhe des verfallenen ehemaligen Bahnwärterhäuschens tot neben den Gleisen liegend gefunden worden. Der Oberkörper der 35-jährigen Französin wurde von einem Nahverkehrszug überrollt. Neben der Frau lag, ebenfalls tot, ihr Labrador-Hund.

Weiterer Bericht bei PfalzWoche.de.

Germersheim is a small town largely populated by students of translation and interpreting at the University of Mainz. A 35-year-old French interpreter was found dead by the railway lines there, but the police called in the murder squad as it appeared not to be a suicide. The main suspect is a 20-year-old sports trainer in Wilhelmshaven, with whom she lived for a time after she separated from her husband at the end of 2003. (Report by Richard Schneider at the Übersetzer-Portal)