It was a bad omen last year when this freewheeling western conservative in the Reagan mould went off to court the intolerant Christian right.

ECONOMIST: The presidential campaign

By its ruling, the court sets itself up as final arbiter of further EU integration (and even of rulings by the European Court of Justice), argues Christian Calliess of the Free University in Berlin.

ECONOMIST: Germany and Europe

And the more beards are promoted in Islamic societies, the more unpopular they become in places that are wary of Islam such as India, where a court opined last year that a Christian college was entitled to ban beards.

ECONOMIST: Hair, beards and power