Frank Richter, a highly-regarded computational linguist at the University of Tuebingen, is at risk of losing his job.  Why?  Because, like large numbers of middle-rank (non-professorial) academics in Germany, his "time is up."  Marion Zepf, a student at Tuebingen, writes:

Frank Richter, an outstanding, internationally renowned researcher in computational linguistics and an excellent lecturer, is about to lose his job at the University of Tuebingen, Germany.  This is by no fault on his part, but by federal law – and Frank is by far not the only academic in Germany who has to leave the academic world despite his good work.

In Germany, 85% of middle-rank (i.e. non-professorial) academics are employed under fixed-term contracts.  These contracts are usually extended and chained, up to a limit of twelve years, which is mandated by a federal law (called 'Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz').  After that time, the researcher may no longer sign a fixed-term contract at any German University.  The only way to stay in academia is to be appointed to a chair – an option that covers only 10% of middle-rank academics, – or to obtain one of the very few other unlimited-term positions.  The latter case is extremely rare, as there are not nearly enough such positions available to employ even just the best researchers.  Thus, the law has the effect of an academic employment ban for Frank and many others who are not lucky enough to receive an unlimited-term contract.

There is a petition in support of Dr. Richter here.  (If you do not read German, there is an English translation of the petition here.)