German Joys

Heidelberg Debate on 'Morality and Criminal Justice'

Here, as promised are the videos of the talk I gave with Robert Blecker in Heidelberg on 4 May 2012. The introduction is by Franz-Julius Morche, one of the organizers of the conference, and the moderation is by Dr. Markus Englerth. Many thanks to both of them, to Robert Blecker, and to the audience, who asked some good questions.

Heidelberg Symposium Tickets Available

As I announced a few weeks ago, I'll be in Heidelberg in two weeks to debate Robert Blecker, an American law professor who endorses a retributivist approach to punishment and favors capital punishment. The debate will take place during the 24th Heidelberger Symposium (g), which takes place from the 3rd to the 5th of May in Heidelberg. The theme is Mut zur Moral, roughly 'The courage to be moral.'

I've been informed by the organizers that tickets are necessary. Fortunately, you can buy them online here (the website's in German). Buy your tickets, come watch the festivities, and get drunk with me afterwards!

I Debate Robert Blecker on May 4th in Heidelberg

Just to let you know in eigener Sache, I've been invited by the Heidelberger Clubs für Wirtschaft und Kultur e.V. (Heidelberg Business and Culture Club) to participate in their 24th annual Symposium (g), which will be held in Heidelberg from 3-5 May. The program is here (g).

I'll be taking part in a debate/discussion with Robert Blecker, a professor at New York Law School, on the subject of morality and the criminal law. Blecker is probably the most prominent American academic proponent of capital punishment and the retributive ethic in criminal justice, and also the main character in the film Robert Blecker Wants Me Dead (see above) which chronicles Blecker's relationship with a death-row inmate Daryl Holton. He is also the author, most recently, of Let the Great Axe Fall, a Kindle Single which you can download here.

I find debating capital punishment sort of tedious, but the discussion promises to be more wide-ranging than that. We'll be debating in English, since Blecker, as far as I know, doesn't speak German.* Should be fun!

Another Territory Added to My Expanding Media Empire

WDR5, the public radio channel with which I have a 94% love/6% hate relationship, recently interviewed me for a feature about how foreigners see Germany. You can download the whole program here.

I haven't listened to it yet, because it's too cringeifying. But I thought it would be queer not to mention it on this blog, since that's the main reason they interviewed me.

If I sound a little drunk during the interview, that's because I was! Mmmmm, Hefe-Weizenbier...

A Summary of My Book

For those few remaining holdouts who haven't read my book yet, William W. Berry III of the University of Mississippi School of Law has recently uploaded a paper to SSRN that includes (among other things) a good summary of my main arguments. I haven't read the whole thing yet, so I don't yet know Berry's take, but I thought I'd put a link up all the same.

Next Monday: Spotlight on Iraq

I'm delighted to announce that next Monday, December 6th, a friend of mine and an expert on the Iraqi Constitution, Zaid Al-Ali, will be visiting the Heinrich Heine University and giving a talk on the constitution-drafting process. The talk will take place at 18:00 in Lecture Hall 5A of Building 25.11 on the University campus. The lecture will be in English; admission is free.

Working with the UN Development Program, Zaid assisted in the drafting and implementation of the Iraqi Constitution. Zaid himself is a citizen of Iraq and has law degrees from Harvard Law School and the Sorbonne. He will talk about the issue of constitutional legitimacy in the drafting process. Zaid visits Iraq regularly, and routinely posts dispatches on Open Democracy, which you can read here. The speech promises to be quite interesting, and Zaid will, of course, take audience questions afterwards.

You can find more information in this pdf. General instructions for reaching the University are here (g). Building 25.11 is located here, just a 5-minute walk from the Uni-Ost streetcar stop.

German Joys - Immer ein Bisschen Voraus

Always a little ahead of the curve, that is. German Joys leads, other news sources follow. Item:

• Way back in 2007, GJ noted the absurdity of Germans being forced to pay 20 times as much for aspirin as the residents of most other advanced industrialized nations. What do I see on the front page of my Zeit newspaper this morning? The headline: "Why do Germans pay so much for Aspirin?" (g). Welcome aboard, Herr di Lorenzo (finally).... As for me, I always bring back from the States a 500-tablet bottle of aspirin, which costs the equivalent of 2 Euro.
• Last year, GJ was bemused over the fact that there is actually a tree called the "Caucasian Wingnut." Many months later, Talking Points Memo has discovered this fun fact. You're welcome, Mr. Marshall....

My Book Now Exists

My first book, Ending the Death Penalty: The European Experience in Global Perspective, has assumed physical form, and can now be bought on Amazon.co.uk, as you can see by the widget to the right. If you're interested and have an extra couple dozen Euro lying around, please go buy it!

My Forthcoming Book: Ending the Death Penalty

 (Forgive the blurb. New posts below!)

A note to my readers: My first book, Ending the Death Penalty: The European Experience in Global Perspective, will be published in the UK on May 14, 2010 by Palgrave MacMillan. You can pre-order it at Palgrave's website here, at Amazon.com here, and at Amazon.de here.

I've often heard the question "Why does the United States still practice the death penalty"? I wrote this book to hazard an answer to an even more interesting question: "Why does Europe no longer have the death penalty?" I analyze the question based on the historical examples of Great Britain, France, and Germany, then try to place the resulting conclusions in global perspective. More information here.

German Joys Blog Hiatus

(inside cover of Staney Donwoods' Catacombs of Terror - Source)

Let me get straight to the point. I have to submit a manuscript by the end of this month. Progress has been OK so far, but needs to get faster. Therefore, I hereby officially announce that there will be a German Joys Blog Hiatus for about 6 weeks or so. I may post something occasionally, but it won't be very detailed or illuminating.

Thanks for your understanding, and see you again in 6 weeks or so. And if you want to know what the inside cover of my book will look like, just follow the jump.