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

Maria von Altmann, in California, has sued the Austrian Gallery (whatever that is) and the Austrian state over six Gustav Klimt paintings. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the case can be heard in the USA if the claims are proved. The Supreme Court of the U.S.A. has announced that it will hear the appeal, in order to define when foreign governments can be sued in U.S. courts. (See report on CBS News, via Legal Reader).

How does stenotype work?
Here is a picture of a stenotype keyboard, and here is a definition of computer-aided transcription (CAT, which to me means computer-aided translation):

This is a stenotype machine producing paper notes. It simultaneously produces an electronic duplicate of what is contained on the paper notes. The electronic notes are fed directly into a computer that translates the notes into English. The reporter reviews and edits the translated material on the computer screen, then makes a direct printout of the transcript. The technology
greatly speeds the production of transcripts, while also making transcripts immediately available on disk for interested parties.

There is a picture of some steno machine output and description of it at this site for distance learning of court reporting.

Complete transcripts of court hearings are something you encounter in English and U.S. courts, but not in German courts. The O.J.Simpson trial showed a court where attorneys and judge saw the transcript on their computer screens almost in real time. And the Hutton Inquiry (investigating the death of David Kelly), as already mentioned, is using a lot of the latest technology.

The Times online (registration is free) has an article by Richard Susskind, who writes on IT matters, on the Hutton Enquiry technology.

It gives a link to www.livenote.com about transcriptions.

Lord Hutton and the eight legal teams have had continuous access to these transcripts and images of evidence in a court reminiscent of a Nasa control room, with 44 desktop flat screens and four large plasma screens.

The public has had remarkably open access to the transcripts and evidence through the inquiry’s website, designed and maintained by the Court Service and the Department for Constitutional Affairs … Since mid-August it has had, on average, 10,000 visitors a day.

Here is a transcript of Lord Hutton’s opening statement.

A few years ago it was hard to get transcripts. Now many are free at the www.bailii.org.uk site.
Here is a transcript of the case known as MacLibel, described as:

Transcribed from the stenotype notes of
Barnett Lenton & Company,
61 Carey Street, London WC2A 2JG
(Telephone 0171-405-2345)

(Click to enlarge)
Painting by Antonello da Messina, Naples, 1460. Here’s an account of St. Jerome (Hieronymus) in German, and here in English. (At the latter site, the translators’ hall of fame seems thinly populated – only Jerome and Jean François Champollion, who deciphered the Rosetta Stone). I once had a copy of an old painting or woodcut showing Jerome making mousetraps, but I can’t find that.

The Contracting and Organizations Research Institute at the University of Missouri has a searchable database of contracts:

bq. The CORI K-Base is a growing Knowledge Base of Contract information, featuring a library of executed contracts and contract forms for a wide array of transaction types and industries. Over 10,000 contracts can be accessed using our full-text search engine. First-time users must complete a free registration.

(Via LawSites). I haven’t investigated it any further. These databases can be useful if you’re translating a U.S. contract and you think there’s an error in it – then you search for the boilerplate and find similar examples, which usually throw light on what’s missing. Or alternatively, if you’re translating into American English, you can find standard boilerplate (I prefer not to adapt a translation too far to the target legal system, because it’s about German law, not English or American law, but where boilerplate is similar, I like to collect it). Google will also help if you enter apparently defective contract language – a clustering search engine will not be so useful here.