Terror and Law: German Responses to 9/11

In reaction to the 9/11 terror attacks the German Parliamentenacted a number of statutes under the auspices of the so-calledwar against terror. The repressive new legislation aims at enhancingsurveillance and control by police and intelligence agenciesby introducing, for example, new passports and ID-cards. Inorder to prevent attacks similar to those of 9/11, Parliamenteven established statutory authority to shoot down, using militaryforce, passenger planes being used as a weapon. At the sametime the Federal Public Prosecutor General has prosecuted anumber of persons as alleged supporters of the 9/11 pilots,and several others, as alleged Islamic terrorists. These forcefulreactions of both Parliament and the Public Prosecutor provedpremature and were overturned by Germany's highest courts. Thefight against terrorism has thus been shown to be bound by constitutionallaw and general principles of law; such special measures stillneed, ultimately to adhere to the rule of law.     

The legal classification of identity-based signatures

Identity-based cryptography has attracted attention in the cryptographic research community in recent years. Despite the importance of cryptographic schemes for applications in business and law, the legal implications of identity-based cryptography have not yet been discussed. We investigate how identity-based signatures fit into the legal framework. We focus on the European Signature Directive, but also take the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures into account. In contrast to previous assumptions, identity-based signature schemes can, in principle, be used even for qualified electronic signatures, which can replace handwritten signatures in the member states of the European Union. We derive requirements to be taken into account in the development of future identity-based signature schemes.     

The Ins and Outs of the Jains in Tamil Literary Histories

The Jains and their texts play a key role in the literary histories of the Tamil-speaking region. However, in their modern form, dating from 1856 to the present, these histories have been written almost exclusively by non-Jains. Driving their efforts have been agendas such as cultural evolutionism, Dravidian nationalism or Śaiva devotionalism. This essay builds on ideas articulated by the contemporary Tamil theorist K. Civatampi, examining how various models of periodization have frozen the Jains in the ancient past. Further, it will explore how this unfolding historical drama, which gloriously climaxes in Tamil literature, has attributed the Jains, as dramatis personae, merely a role in early Jain texts; their role as communities transmitting these texts has been ignored. In contrast to this typical pattern, this article will also introduce a literary history written in 1941 by the Jain A. Cakravarti Nāyaṉār (1880–1960). It will explore whether or not his voice, which emerged from within the same academic community contributing to the strange absence of Jains in the contemporary awareness of Tamil literary, was successful in finding another way for Jains of being heard, and for non-Jains, of listening.     

Gewöhnung an ein Suchtmittel,Eigensuchtfinanzierung

Eine Begrenzung des der Gew?hnung zugrunde liegenden Abh?ngigkeitsbegriffs iS eines schon medizinischen Krankheitswertes oder einer jedenfalls psychotherapeutischen Behandlungsbedürftigkeit ist weder dem Gesetzeswortlaut zu entnehmen, noch ergibt sich diese Auslegung aus der Systematik des Gesetzes oder dessen historischem Hintergrund bzw der Teleologie des SMG. Nicht nur die privilegierte Form des Suchtgifthandels, sondern auch der nunmehr in die Kompetenz des Einzelrichters fallende Grundtatbestand des § 28a Abs 1 SMG unterliegt im Fall einer Gew?hnung des T?ters den Diversionsbedingungen des § 35 Abs 2 SMG. Angesichts der in § 27 Abs 2 SMG vorgesehenen (mit § 27 Abs 1 SMG aF identen) Strafdrohung im Zusammenhalt mit der nach der SMG-Novelle 2007 wesentlich weitergehenden Diversionsm?glichkeit nach § 35 Abs 1 und Abs 2 SMG ist nach § 48 SMG iVm § 61 StGB die für den Rechtsmittelwerber günstigere Bestimmung des § 27 Abs 2 iVm Abs 1 Z 1 erster und zweiter Fall SMG anzuwenden.     

Linkages between Parliamentary and Ministerial Careers in Germany, 1949–2008: The Bundestag as Recruitment Pool

Germany is noted within Europe for its weak tobacco control policies and its opposition to European Union tobacco control legislation. In this article, we aim to explain Germany's stance on tobacco control. We review two explanations commonly proposed, namely tobacco industry donations to political parties and the legacy of the Nazis' opposition to smoking, and examine the politics of tobacco control in detail. We suggest that the interplay of numerous factors explains Germany's stance. Aspects of political culture including the Nazi heritage which has resulted in a dearth of public health research and teaching, institutional factors such as the reliance on industry self-regulation facilitated by Germany's system of corporatist policy-making and interest group politics are key. The tobacco industry has also successfully used framing strategies to uphold the social acceptability of smoking and undermine the acceptability of tobacco control in Germany. In addition a phenomenon that we call ‘autarkic epistemic isolation’ explains why so little policy learning from abroad has occurred. We suggest that our multi-factor model has significant explanatory power for Germany's weak stance that has resulted in a long-standing policy equilibrium. Recent events, however, suggest that this equilibrium may now have been punctuated.