Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Chat Over Article 18 of the German Constitution

Article 18 of the German Basic Law (the Constitution) is probably the most confusing and most damaging piece of the entire Constitution.  It basically centers on you (the German citizen) giving up or forfeiting your basic rights.

It basically say: "Whoever abuses the freedom of expression, in particular the freedom of the press (paragraph (1) of Article 5), the freedom of teaching (paragraph (3) of Article 5), the freedom of assembly (Article 8), the freedom of association (Article 9), the privacy of correspondence, posts and telecommunications (Article 10), the rights of property (Article 14), or the right of asylum (Article 16a) in order to combat the free democratic basic order shall forfeit these basic rights. This forfeiture and its extent shall be declared by the Federal Constitutional Court."

A judge will basically write up a reason why they believe your basic rights should go away, and unless the higher court of Germany says it's a bad decision.....that's the end of the discussion.

Today, the Chancellor was asked a question in the Bundestag....over this political murder in Kassel, and her take was 'yes, this might be a case where the young guy loses his basic rights'. 

It won't be the Chancellor to request this....it'll be the local prosecutor who prepares paperwork and invokes this.  The odds of it happening?  I might suggest that it's a move that would inflame the situation a bit and they might avoid doing it. 

The most that this accused guy (news reports indicate he has admitted guilt) might get in jail?  Twenty years. 

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