Smoking bans in Germany: Bavaria quits

Two years ago now, I wrote that Bavaria’s ban on smoking in public buildings had been upheld by the German Constitutional Court. But it, or a new version of it, has recently been challenged again – and again upheld. Just before the Court upheld the Bavarian ban the first time round in 2008, it had […]

Michael White on John Demjanjuk

Michael White, writing on the Guardian’s website, argues that John Demjanjuk, currently on trial in Munich, should not be. Demjanjuk is accused of involvement in the murder of thousands at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during the war; Michael White’s argument is that it was all a long time ago, there’s nothing more […]

German Constitutional Court approves Lisbon – with provisos

On Tuesday the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the Lisbon Treaty is fundamentally compatible with the German Constitution – the Grundgesetz or Basic Law. The judgment is vast and verbose (German/English) but here’s a (still quite verbose) summary of it (German/English). The court sees Lisbon as substantially increasing EU competence, but not to such a […]

German anti-terror proposals

I thought you’d be interested in a couple of stories (in English) about the German government’s proposed new BKA law (Federal Crime Agency law, would be my translation) which is proving controversial because it will give the BKA new powers of intercept and “cyber-spying”, through remote online searches of computers. The proposals have passed the […]

German Constitutional Court: Bavarian smoking ban upheld

I’m back from Berlin now, but thought you might want to catch up with part two of this summer’s German constitutional litigation over the smoking bans introduced by various Länder. You may recall that the bans in Baden-Württemberg and Berlin were ruled unconstitutional and must be applied with modifications pending legislative reform, because the scope […]

German Consitutional Court: smoking bans disproportionate

I’m afraid you need to read German in order to read the recent judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court in which it has ruled unconstitutional smoking bans in Berlin and Baden-Württemberg. There is also a press release which explains the judgment in slightly less dense German, and a Deutsche Welle article in English which gives […]