The possibility of monitoring telecommunications pursuant to § 100a of the Strafprozeßordnung (StPO – Criminal Procedure Code) existed in Germany for the last 35 years. Nonetheless, the surveillance of telecommunications is still the subject of controversy and dispute; not only in connection with new forms of communications but also with regard to the extent and grounds of application in “normal” cases of telephone surveillance.

With its “Agenda 2010”, the German Government aims at a comprehensive reform of the German labour market. With regard to labour law, changes are planned notably concerning the protection against dismissal and limited-term employment contracts. For the first time, there will be a standard statutory claim to a severance payment (under certain circumstances) in the case of dismissals for operational reasons (redundancies).

What are the key qualifications for tomorrow's attorney? And how do we have to structure legal education to teach the so-determined qualifications? The answers to both questions seem difficult, if not impossible, since they require a prediction of how the legal market will develop. However, as with most difficult questions, the answers prove to be easier than expected: In this case, they may be embodied in two poems by the German poet Erich Kästner (1899-1974) which are quite meaningful, not only in our regard. The first poem reads:

Almost exactly one year after the famous judgments of the Court of First Instance on the precautionary principle, the European Court of Justice (hereinafter “the Court”) has issued a preliminary ruling further exploring this concept. The ruling arose from a national dispute concerning a temporary ban on novel foods produced from genetically modified organisms (hereinafter “GMOs”). This recent Monsanto judgment is the first case in which the Court has directly invoked the precautionary principle regarding Member States’ power to adopt a provisional prohibition on the marketing of GMO-derived novel foods. Simultaneously, the Court lent an ear to the arguments of Monsanto by declaring the validity of the simplified procedure laid down in the novel foods Regulation 258/97 and based on the contentious concept of substantial equivalence. Thus, it seems to have favoured the free circulation in the Community market of novel foodstuffs notwithstanding the presence of residues of genetically modified (hereinafter “GM”) protein, on the condition that there is no risk to human health.

I have read in the newspapers that foreign citizens, when travelling to the United States on a Visa, will undergo a data registration and have their fingerprints taken. Not willing to submit myself to this treatment, I decided therefore to cancel my guest lectures at New York University for March 2004. At this time, I would like to provide reasons for my decision – a decision that I find necessary and unavoidable in spite of my sympathies for American students and professors with whom I have for many years felt connected both in friendship and professional life. This is a decision that I would hope to be adopted also by other European Intellectuals and Teachers.