On July 18, 2001, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (German Federal Constitutional Court) will issue its ruling in the application for a temporary injunction, brought by the Länder (Federal States) of Bavaria and Saxony, to block the August 1 effective date of the new federal Lebenspartnerschaftgesetz (LPartG — Registered Lifetime Partnership Act for Homosexual Relationships). This act has been the subject of considerable controversy including the claims at the heart of the Federal States' challenge to the constitutionality of the statute. This article will: (a) briefly survey the social evolution that has necessitated the regulations in this statute; (b) describe some of the statute's provisions; and (c) end by summarizing some of the sometimes harsh and often very emotional arguments involved in the debate over the LPartG and raised as part of the challenge to the statute's constitutionality in the proceedings before the Federal Constitutional Court.

In its judgement from June 27, 2001, in the LaGrand Case (Germany v. United States of America), the International Court of Justice made a number of watershed rulings: (a) The Court established that Article 36(1) of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations creates individual rights for foreign nationals abroad, and not just rights protecting the interests of states that are a party to the Convention; (b) The Court ruled that, beyond the undisputed failure on the part of the U.S. to take the measures required by the Convention, the application of an American provision of criminal procedure in the LaGrand brothers' cases (a provision that prevented the domestic courts from reviewing the implications of the Convention violation admitted by the Americans) itself constituted a violation of Article 36(2) of the Convention; (c) The Court, as a remedy in the case of future violations of the Convention, ordered the United States to provide a procedure for the review and reconsideration of convictions secured in circumstances in which the obligations of the Convention had not been observed; and (d) as a separate matter the Court ruled that its provisional orders, issued pursuant to Article 41 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, have binding effect.

Just over a year ago, in the Spring of 2000, a Government Commission entitled \“Corporate Governance - Unternehmensführung (corporate management) - Unternehmenskontrolle (corporate control) - Modernisierung des Aktienrechts (Modernization of corporate law) and consisting of a group of selected lawyers and business practioners from the banking and insurance industry, took up the task of engaging in an in-depth analysis of the structure and challenges of \“German corporate governance.\” The Commission\'s work has drawn to an end and its 300 page report was presented to the public on July 10, 2001. It is German Law Journal\'s privilege to provide its readers with the first-hand insights of the Chair of the Commission, Professor Theodor Baums of the University of Frankfurt\'s Institute of Banking Law. In his discussion with GLJ, Professor Baums addressed specifics of the Commission\'s Report as well as the heritage of and the future prospects for German corporate and capital market law.

The European Commission's recent decision to block the US $42 billion proposed merger between General Electric Co. and Honeywell International Inc. was, as breathlessly reported by the international press, a tale of personalities, high politics, and conflicting ideologies. The respective story lines made for gripping journalism concering the clash between a world business icon and a former Italian economics professor, the US administration's accusations of illegitimate application of extraterritorial jurisdiction and undemocratic exercise of authority by the Commission, the Commission's counter-accusations of attempts at political interference, and the dispute over divergent theories of competitive markets. (Indeed, the events may be worthy subject matter for a sequel to “Antitrust”, a dramatization of the Microsoft antitrust case now playing in theatres).