Controversies over cartoons, circumcisions or killings in the name of “honor”: There is an increasing tendency in multiculturalism to cause conflicts. How should criminal law deal with these issues? This question is being researched by Brian Valerius, legal scholar at the University of Würzburg, Germany.
Should a female teacher of Turkish descent be allowed to wear a Muslim headscarf in a public school? Is the husband in a German-Moroccan marriage entitled to punish his wife physically?
These are just some examples of problematic cross-cultural cases that German courts have been confronted with in recent years. In particular, criminal proceedings involving so-called “honor killings” have been in the spotlight of public attention.
“Academic studies on culture and criminal law …

A lot of people that using alternative sources of fuel is just fulfilling your environmental duties. Others use such fuel sources to assuage their own conscience. While using alternative fuel sources can definitely fulfil the above two roles, it is just plain good sense and planning to not depend on the rapidly depleting and environmentally degrading fossil fuels that form the backbone of our economy, and our transport system.
You can start off your use of alternative fuels in your daily commute. If you use your feet to commute, either through walking or cycling, you are at a great disadvantage with the rest of the American populace. Not only will you be healthier and fitter, you …

“No less than 71 percent of Republicans said they would vote for [Palin] for president,” according to the USA Today/Gallup poll. This was after her resignation as governor of Alaska last week. Amazing!
In this Sunday’s New York Times, Frank Rich cites that poll, concluding that “she stands for a genuine movement: a dwindling white nonurban America that is aflame with grievances and awash in self-pity as the country hurtles into the 21st century and leaves it behind.” The commentariate rightly calls attention to how flaky and inconsistent Sarah Palin is, but Rich notes that “The essence of Palinism is emotional, not ideological. . . . The real wave she’s riding is a loud, resonant surge …

Elena Komleva -
The institute of philosophy, Dortmund University, Germany
The power interests of Germany in the European North of Russia are concentrated around Stockman field and the long-term storage facilities of the nuclear data. In the prospect the nuclear storage will be changed into the burial. Germany is a suitable partner in the Arctic because it doesn’t pretend for its sector there. It is expected to build the pipelines “The Barents sea – Vyborg” and the “Nord Stream” of “Gazprom” company.
New principles and documents relative to interrelations between European Union and Russia are being formed nowadays, including power engineering field. Russia accounts its rejection of ratification of EU power charter for the losses in the oil …

The UN Security Council has today announced that it has voted unanimously to impose new sanctions on North Korea which, in addition to tighter bans on arms exports and greater powers to inspect North Korean ships, include ‘financial measures’ (at this point, however, the type of financial measures are not clear). These developments are a reaction to North Korea’s nuclear tests last month which have led to the excoriation of its actions around the globe.
It is strange, however, that the hypocrisy of the UN Security Council is largely ignored by the mainstream media. Every permanent member of the Security Council boasts huge stockpiles of thermonuclear weapons. Moreover, one member of the Security Council is, hitherto, …

The Constitutional guaranty of freedom of speech is contained in the First Amendment and is but one of six guarantees spelled out in that amendment. The section relating to free speech is actually limited to 10 words, “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech.”
As with most rights, free speech has limitations and those limits go far beyond the old example of yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater when there is no fire, a very reasonable restriction.
However, it’s worth remembering that the First Amendment and, indeed, the Constitution itself relates to the government “abridging” free speech, also called censorship. The non-governmental private sector suffers from no comparable inhibitions when it …