diff --git a/app/controllers/application_controller.rb b/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
index 483dcf094..a0fa5c4af 100644
--- a/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
@@ -43,6 +43,28 @@ class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
     end
   end
 
+  # FIXME: Remove this when all of Rack and Rails have learned how to
+  # properly use encodings
+  before_filter :params_filter
+
+  def params_filter
+    if RUBY_VERSION >= '1.9' && defined?(Rails) && Rails::VERSION::MAJOR < 3
+      self.utf8nize!(params)
+    end
+  end
+
+  def utf8nize!(obj)
+    if obj.is_a? String
+      obj.respond_to?(:force_encoding) ? obj.force_encoding("UTF-8") : obj
+    elsif obj.is_a? Hash
+      obj.each {|k, v| obj[k] = self.utf8nize!(v)}
+    elsif obj.is_a? Array
+      obj.each {|v| self.utf8nize!(v)}
+    else
+      obj
+    end
+  end
+
   before_filter :user_setup, :check_if_login_required, :set_localization
   filter_parameter_logging :password