On March 3, 2004, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (German Federal Constitutional Court) decided that the regulations in the Strafprozessordnung (StPO – Code of Criminal Procedure) concerning acoustic surveillance of housing space (the so called “Großer Lauschangriff“) partly violate the Grundgesetz (GG – German Constitution or Basic Law). Article 13.3 of the Basic Law itself, which in 1998 integrated the right to acoustic surveillance of housing for reason of prosecution into the Basic Law, was nonetheless found to be constitutional. In the following comment, the legal status, the political background of the constitutional change in 1998 and the essential content of the Court's decision shall be examined in detail.

The corporation celebrates its 400th birthday. What Adam Smith treated skeptically concerning relative efficiency in 1776, has become the dominant organizational form, and not only in Smith's home country of Great Britain.

Under German law, people with disabilities are entitled to help and assistance in order to avert, eliminate or improve their disability. The general goal is to overcome, as much as possible, the disability's effects and to enable the disabled to participate in all areas of society, especially in the labor market and in community life. The Federal Government is obliged to a barrier-free design and construction of public buildings, streets, etc. and to provide barrier-free access to communication, especially in the field of administrative Internet sites, official forms and notifications. In the area of public transportation, all facilities and means of transportation (bus, train, aircraft) are also required to be barrier-free. The same applies to restaurants.