Articles for category: AAA General

On the courage to be wrong

The debate on the Wissenschaftsrat-Report has quickly turned into one about the comparative advantages of German doctrinal vs. US interdisciplinary legal scholarship and education. This is not surprising because much of the Report reads like a recommendation to go further down the American path, while at the same time still taking doctrine seriously – very seriously indeed. In taking this ›middle path‹, the authors seek to take the best of what are two very different academic worlds. This effort is admirable, but I am skeptical about its prospects. The attempt itself stems, I think, from a deeper dilemma that has ... continue reading

22. Februar 2014

Free Trade in Legal Scholarship?

I want to decline Rob Howse’s invitation to talk about my own residual anxieties, because he introduces another more interesting theme into the debate: whether scholarship can actually be traded between countries. He suggests that such trade exists, though apparently only in one direction: »It is not as if Americans are going to buy their doctrinal scholarship from Germany […]; on the other hand, some forms of interdisciplinary scholarship from the US may well be exportable to Germany.« But it was not always so. There was a time, prior to World War I, when many Americans were indeed eager to ... continue reading

22. Februar 2014

Schweizer Bundesgericht: „Sauausländer“ ist nicht diskriminierend

Wenn ein Polizist einen des Taschendiebstahls verdächtigen Algerier bei seiner Festname lauthals als „Drecksasylant“ und „Sauausländer“ beschimpft, dann ist das vielleicht böse, gemein und beleidigend, aber eins ist es nicht: eine Diskriminierung. Zu diesem, um es mal vorsichtig zu formulieren, kontraintuitiven Schluss kommt das Schweizerische Bundesgericht in einem gestern veröffentlichten Urteil, das dem jüngst so markant in die Welt gesetzten Bild der Schweiz als eines Landes, in dem man sich ohne lupenreine eidgenössische Abstammungscredentials nicht allzu wohl fühlen soll, noch eine weitere Facette hinzufügen dürfte. Das Schweizer Strafgesetzbuch droht jedem, der andere „wegen ihrer Rasse, Ethnie oder Religion in einer ... continue reading

22. Februar 2014

Beyond curricular design: why internationalisation matters in legal education

A few years ago, a New York Times editorial declared: »American legal education is in crisis«! It sounds dramatic and exceptional, but actually quite often, and almost everywhere, there is a feeling that legal education is not going well. When I was a law student at the University of São Paulo, in the early 1990s, legal education reform was on the agenda; as a law professor at the same university, almost 25 years later, I keep hearing similar anxieties about this issue. In this context, the document delivered by the German Council of Science and Humanities (hereafter, »the Council« or ... continue reading

21. Februar 2014

Vom Recht, auf die Mehrdeutigkeit des Gesetzes vertrauen zu können

Der Gesetzgeber sagt, was das Gesetz ist. Sollte man meinen. Ist aber nicht so. Das Bundesverfassungsgericht hat heute einen Senatsbeschluss veröffentlicht, der in Berlin und anderenorts mal wieder für allerhand Zahnschmelzabrieb sorgen dürfte. Es geht um die Frage, ob der Gesetzgeber klarstellen darf, wie er seine eigenen Worte verstanden wissen will, wenn es in Praxis und Justiz Verwirrung um dieselben gibt. Das darf er nicht, so die Mehrheitsmeinung im Ersten Senat: Damit würde er die Rechtslage rückwirkend verändern und damit das Vertrauen der Bürgerinnen und Bürger, dass gilt, was gilt, rechtsstaatswidrig enttäuschen. Unklarheiten zu beseitigen sei allein Sache der Justiz: ... continue reading

20. Februar 2014

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Residual Anxieties – A Reply to Ralf Michaels

Ralf Michaels describes me as having „taken offense“ to his claim about  eternal supremacy of Germany in doctrinal scholarship. I wish immediately to clarify that I was not offended at all by his claim; I merely found it to be highly implausible, and rooted in a kind of historical or cultural determinism that is, to say the least, questionable.  Now, however, Michaels in his response considerably revises his assertion, and says he rejects cultural determinism. The key proposition instead is that the average German legal scholar is likely to be a better doctrinalist than the average American scholar, and conversely ... continue reading

20. Februar 2014

Culture, Institutions, and Comparison of Legal Education and Scholarship—A Response to Rob Howse

In a post on verfassungsblog.de I compare two reports on legal education and scholarship: one concerning Germany from the German Council on Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat), the other concering the United States from a task force of the American Bar Association. I find the Wissenschaftsrat’s decision to maintain an emphasis on doctrinal reasoning, while promoting interdisciplinarity and theory, to be prudent—especially for the German situation. By contrast, I find that the ABA report, in its emphasis on teaching skills and tools and implicit rejection of interdisciplinarity, to threaten what has always been a strength of law schools in the United ... continue reading

20. Februar 2014

A Comment on the Use of Foreign Professors in the German Council of Science and Humanities Report

The main issue I wish to focus on in this Comment relates to the German Council of Science and Humanities‹ recommendation that German law schools should aim to encourage more involvement of foreign professors in teaching at German law schools, as part of a sustained attempt to stimulate more engagement with comparative, international and transnational legal developments. Since I have seen attempts at first hand to do something similar in Michigan and Oxford (and more distantly at New York University), I thought it might be helpful to intervene on this aspect of the Report’s recommendations. As background to the points I make ... continue reading

20. Februar 2014

Karlsruhe setzt kreativem Umgang mit Ordnungsgeldern Grenzen

Wenn ein Unternehmen gar keinen Aufsichtsrat hat, darf es nicht dafür bestraft werden, wenn es keinen Bericht desselben veröffentlicht. Das klingt erst mal so logisch, dass es keiner Erwähnung wert wäre. Aber es ist trotzdem passiert, und das hat jetzt das Bundesverfassungsgericht auf den Plan gerufen, das in einer heute veröffentlichten Kammerentscheidung zu den verfassungsrechtlichen Grenzen des Ordnungswidrigkeitenrechts ein paar durchaus notierenswerte Dinge sagt. Es geht in dem Fall um eine GmbH, die eigentlich einen Aufsichtsrat hätte haben müssen, aber keinen hatte – und deshalb ihren Jahresabschlüssen auch keinen Bericht des Aufsichtsrats beifügte, was sie nach § 325 I 3 ... continue reading

19. Februar 2014

Will Germany always really best the US (and the world) in doctrinal legal scholarship?

Germany's Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat) has issued a report on the state of legal scholarship in the country. At first glance it is fairly interesting as an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the discipline. The report has attracted, however, a rather unusual response at Verfassungsblog from a professor at Duke, Ralf Michaels, who seems to hold to theories of cultural determinism in legal education. According to Michaels, "German doctrinal scholarship will always be superior to that of other countries,.." Always? I am not sure what to make of this.Germany's Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat) has issued a report on the state of legal scholarship in the country. At first glance it is fairly interesting as an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the discipline. The report has attracted, however, a rather unusual response at Verfassungsblog from a professor at Duke, Ralf Michaels, who seems to hold to theories of cultural determinism in legal education. According to Michaels, "German doctrinal scholarship will always be superior to that of other countries,.." Always? I am not sure what to make of this.

19. Februar 2014