A manufacturer that discovers a safety defect must notify the relevant federal agency and then notify owners directly — by mail, by registered address, by VIN. The company that finds the problem is required to go and find the people affected by it.
law
Whistleblower bounties
The Dodd-Frank Act directs the SEC to pay a person who voluntarily provides original information leading to a successful enforcement action a share of the money recovered, where sanctions exceed a million dollars. Not protection from retaliation, though that exists too. Payment. The law attaches a financial reward to pushing information out.
The jury
Twelve ordinary citizens, selected at random, with no training in law, decide questions of fact — and in the United States they do so in civil cases as well as criminal ones, far more often than in any comparable system. The verdict is not reviewable on the facts. The credentialed authority in the room instructs on the law and then waits.
Pro se
Americans represent themselves in court in substantial numbers, and the courts accommodate it. Small claims courts are designed for it, often barring lawyers outright. The premise is that an ordinary person can conduct their own case against another party, and that the system should make that possible rather than discourage it.
Good Samaritan laws
Every US state has legislation protecting a bystander who intervenes in an emergency from being sued for the consequences. The legal system identified hesitation as the problem and removed the reason for it.
At-will employment
The default rule across almost all US states is that either party may end the employment relationship at any time, for any reason that is not illegal, without notice. Whatever else it does, it makes staffing decisions fast. A manager who wants to change a team can change it this week.
The four-eyes principle
Vier-Augen-Prinzip. The four-eyes principle. Two people must see and approve, independently, before something takes effect.
It is written into German banking, pharmaceutical, administrative and corporate procedure, and it has a name of its own, which tells you it is a thing people invoke rather than a practice they happen to follow.
It does not check whether the answer is right. It checks that more than one route reached it.
The job description
The German Stellenbeschreibung is a formal document with defined content: the tasks, the authority, the reporting lines, the substitution arrangements. It is referenced in disputes. What the role contains is a matter of record.
Graded by the task
German collective agreements set Entgeltgruppen — pay bands graded by the task rather than by the person. The description of the role determines the band. Promotion means being assigned different work, and the money follows the work rather than the individual.
Collective bargaining
The American term for union-employer negotiation names the process rather than the relationship. Not social partnership, not co-determination. Bargaining — and the word carries no embarrassment.