Private sector companies face a major challenge in ensuring compliance with the many detailed data protection rules that can apply. The compliance burden is further increased if a business enterprise operates in several countries with different data protection rules. This may complicate the exchange of data within the enterprise. The purpose of this article is to plot a path through these rules governing the transfer of personal data abroad.

For historic reasons, the parliamentary legislator of North-Rhine-Westphalia assigned important public responsibilities concerning water supply and distribution in the areas of the rivers Lippe and Emscher to the public-law bodies Lippeverband and Emschergenossenschaft. By law the compulsory members of theses bodies are the Land (federal state) North-Rhine-Westphalia, the municipalities situated in the respective territories, as well as private companies involved with water distribution or usage as well as companies profiting from the bodies’ work or making it more difficult. In 1990 the organizational structure of the two bodies was reformed and participation rights of the respective work forces were introduced. They were granted the right to name representatives to the bodies’ supervisory boards (councils) and the boards of directors, but not for the most powerful organs, the assemblies of the bodies’ members.

The controversy over the planned anti-discrimination laws in Germany, specifically the new provisions in private law to be discussed here, rages on unabated. Publications on this planned law are numerous. And, whether Pro or Contra, they turn out notably more engaged and heated than is suited to the lawyers’ traditional temperament. The fact that the formal discussions and rounds of debate, which were long ago extended to non-lawyers, continue to multiply shows symptomatically to just what extent the topic is now able to get experts and laypeople alike worked up. The principle of equality of human beings, for centuries “one of the pillars of European democracies”, is about to gain currency in new fields of significance: it now aims beyond the binding of states, to bind their citizens as well.

According to Article 48 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU), the founding treaties of the Union can only be amended through a three-step procedure. First, the Council calls an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), after having consulted the European Parliament (EP) and the Commission. Second, within the framework of the IGC, representatives of the governments of the Member States negotiate and sign the amendments to the treaties by common accord. Third, the agreement is submitted to national ratification procedures. When all three steps are concluded, each Member State having ratified the amendments to the treaty, the changes enter into force.

Since 1995 the Commission has repeatedly reviewed the operation of directive 87/102/EEC for the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the member states concerning consumer credit. This was regarded to be necessary mainly for two reasons: firstly, even at the time of the enactment of the original directive its level of protection was lower than in most member states; secondly, the Commission repeatedly emphasised several changes, which had taken place in regard to the credit services sector in recent years. Whereas the previous directive was targeted at the two most common “products” at that time, namely hire purchase agreements and instalment credit and reflected the cash-based society of that time, the range of products presently offered is much more colourful.

During the process of the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a voluminous set of rules was elaborated to ensure that the Court will become an effective instrument for the enforcement of international law. These rules and provisions were drafted and approved in the abstract, but how would they actually work in practice? – We hear that the USA has undertaken an enormous diplomatic effort to limit the jurisdiction of the ICC. To what extend would the outcome of these efforts create an obstacle for the Court to exercise its jurisdiction? – The new ICC Prosecutor has just been sworn in, and several hundred incidents have been reported to the Court where crimes falling under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court might have been committed. Still, it might take some months, if not years until the Court sees its first indictment or trial and until the statute and rules of the Court are applied for the first time.

This year's 6th Joint Conference held by the American and Dutch Societies of International Law and organised by the T.M.C. Asser Institute in The Hague focused on the increasing importance of the role of non-state actors in international law and at the same time provided an opportunity for American and European lawyers to address recent differences between the U.S. and Europe, e.g. on the use of force in Iraq. Consequently one of the three major issues of the conference was the response to international terrorism, while other issues included the role of international organizations as well as transnational corporations in international law.

“To be honest,” remarked Lord Scott with dry humor when we left Villa La Pietra, -“to be honest, I passed no single room where I would simply feel comfortable after a long day's labors.” However, the British Lord of Appeal in Ordinary thinks highly of the arts, certainly no less than his colleagues from Washington, Paris, Rome, Karlsruhe and Luxemburg with whom he explored the collections at La Pietra on this midsummer afternoon. But the wealth and variety of the artworks assembled during the course of the last century by English eccentrics and their assemblage according to fairly personal esthetic criteria relieve the visitor barely for a moment of concentrated observation, requiring permanent attention – and considerate behavior in the midst of irreplaceable treasures.