Research Papers
This page sets out the English summaries of the Research Papers
published by the Reference and Research Services. A link from the
end of the summary will take you to the complete research paper in
German.
Please note the reclaimer and copyright notice.
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The Glass-Steagall Act and regulation of the banks
The ideas currently under consideration by US President Barack Obama concerning the separation of the activities of investment and commercial banks recall the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. That law formed part of a package of economic and social reforms known as the New Deal to combat the effects of the global economic crisis at that time. This was preceded by public hearings held by the Pecora Commission, named after the New York prosecutor Ferdinand Pecora, which had been established by the then Administration to investigate the failings of the US financial system that had led to the financial crisis. -
Haiti?s history since the 1990s
Today, the Republic of Haiti is by far the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Overall, the country is heavily dependent on financial and technical assistance from the international community. Along with the difficult economic and social challenges that have been the cause of, among other things, constant emigration in the last few decades, Haiti is characterised by great political instability. There has been only limited experience of a functioning democracy for any significant period of time, or of the country developing peacefully or of a political class committed to the common good. Haiti?s state structures remain extremely fragile. Since the early 1990s the UN has been trying to stabilise the difficult domestic political situation in Haiti through various missions on the ground. -
Freya von Moltke and the "New Kreisau"
Freya von Moltke, the widow of Count Helmut James von Moltke, passed away on 1 January 2010. She was one of the last living people to have been involved personally in the Kreisau Circle - named for the Moltke estate in what is now Krzy?owa, Poland - and its resistance against National Socialism. To keep the ideals of the Kreisau Circle alive, Freya von Moltke supported the "New Kreisau" initiatives, and was, for example, willing to lend her name to the ?Freya von Moltke Foundation for the New Kreisau?. The "New Kreisau" is also supported by the Kreisau Initiative Berlin, the Krzy?owa Foundation for European Understanding - which cooperates closely with the German-Polish Youth Office - and the Kreisau Initiative Würzburg. -
27 January - Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism
Since 1996, the 27th of January has been commemorated in the Federal Republic of Germany as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism. This national day of remembrance, introduced by Federal President Roman Herzog via a proclamation at the start of 1996, is dedicated to remembrance of the millions of people who were deprived of their rights, persecuted and murdered under the National Socialist totalitarian regime. The date itself commemorates the liberation of the survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp by soldiers of the Red Army on 27 January 1945. -
The spain Presidency of the European Union
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International Conventions for Preventing and Combating Human Trafficking
Human trafficking can be considered a modern form of slavery. It is a widespread phenomenon that is closely linked to organized crime but also to economic migration and exploitation as well as to discrimination based on gender or other grounds. After setting out the international legal framework for preventing and combating human trafficking this issue of the Topical Term provides a brief overview and comparison of the two major conventions in this field: The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime ("Palermo-Protocol") and the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. -
Classroom crucifixes
In its judgement of 3 November 2009, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the display of crucifixes in the classrooms of a state-run school constituted a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the ruling, this practice is an infringement of parents' rights to educate their children in line with their convictions and of children's right to religious freedom, as protected by the Convention. The German Federal Constitutional Court also used similar ar-guments in its ruling on crucifixes and crosses in compulsory state schools in Ba-varia.