CNE Monatsmagazin Digest
September 2004

English Summary

In his article on totalitarian anti-discrimination Roland Baader analyses a recent trend in German and in EU-legislation. According to Baader, freedom of contract becomes discredited as discriminating whereas governmental and supra-governmental discrediting of freedom of contract is praised as anti-discrimination.

The issues behind Direct To Consumer information cut to the heart of the respective roles of government, physicians and patients. As patients demand an ever greater say in their treatment, this is an area with growing importance and which needs to be addressed. To that end, CNE was honoured to host a discussion with Dr Dan Troy, Chief Counsel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

There are many telling examples of positive discrimination in Germany. The recently partially lifted so-called "Meisterbrief" is one of them. On this, André Lichtschlag of the German monthly "eigentuemlich frei" interviewed Michael Woerle, head of the craftsmen association "IFHandwerk", who is one of the main critics of the "Meisterbrief".

Many politicians seem to discredit ostracism as harmful, if people make use of their freedoms of contract and assembly, but accept it as a legitimate political tool to exclude political opponents. One who masterly uses the concept of ostracism as a libertarian tool is Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Rahim Thagizadegan, one of the heads of the "Viennese initiative for liberalism and market economy" reports of Hoppe´s recent visit to Vienna.

Sometimes German universities discriminate, sometimes they lift discriminations, and sometimes they are discriminated. However, we chose several examples from the recent issues of the Newsletter of the German Association of Universities, DHV-Newsletter, to illustrate the almost omnipresent power of discrimination in education.

Click here to view the full Monatsmagazin in German.

Dr. Hardy Bouillon is Head of Academic Affairs at the Centre for the New Europe.