Coming to Terms with the Past under the Rule of Law: The German and the Czech Models PDF
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COMING TO TERMS WITH THE PAST UNDER THE RULE OF LAW The German and the Czech Models Budapest 1994 COMING TO TERMS WITH THE PAST UNDER THE RULE OF LAW The German and the Czech Models edited by CSABA VARGA Budapest 1994 Contents Preface VII Bibliography XIX Verjährung von Straftaten, die in der ehemaligen DDR begangen wurden 1 THE GERMAN LAW I ON STATUTORY LIMITATIONS Initiatives, drafts Antrag der Abgeordneten Dr. Hans de With, Hermann Bachmaier, Hans Gottfried Bernrath, Dr. Herta Däubler-Gmelin, Hans-Joachim Hacker, Walter Kolbow, Dr. Uwe Küster, Dr. Jürgen Meyer (Ulm), Dr. Eckhart Pick, Margot von Renesse, Dr. Jürgen Schmude, Wieland Sorge, Ludwig Stiegler, Dieter Wiefelspütz, Dr. Peter Struck. Hans-Ulrich Klose und der Fraktion der SPD 7 [Drucksache 12/2132] Gesetzesantrag der Länder Bayern, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern und Thüringen 10 [Drucksache 141/92] Gesetzentwurf des Abgeordneten Dr. Wolfgang Ulimann und der Gruppe BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN 30 [Drucksache 12/2332] Scholarly opinions at the Bundesrat hearing (11 November 1992) Verfassungsrechtliche Fragen einer Regelung der Verjährung von Unrechtstaten in der ehemaligen DDR Stellungnahme für don Rechtsausschuß des Deutschen Bundestages 39 Stellungnahme zur Frage der Verjährung von DDR-Unrechtstaten (Anhörung des Rechtsausschusses des Deutschen Bundestages am 11. 11. 1992) 47 Stellungnahme zur nichtöffentlichen Anhörung zu den Entwürfen eines Gesetzes zur Verjährung von SED-Unrechtstaten am 11. November 1992 vor dem Rechtsausschuß des Deutschen Bundestages 50 Zur Verjährung von SED-Unrechtstaten 59 The Law Gesetz über das Ruhen der Verjährung bei SED-Unrechtstaten (VerjährungsG) 65 III THE GERMAN LAW II ON STATUTORY LIMITATIONS Initiatives, drafts Gesetzesantrag des Landes Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (3 March 1992) Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Verlängerung strafrechtlicher Verjährungs- fristen 11 [Bundesrat. Drucksache 147/92] Gesetzentwurf der Fraktion der SPD (12 February 1993) Entwurf eines ... Strafrechtsänderungsgesetzes — Verjährung von Straftaten nach §§ 234 a, 241 a StGB (...SlrÄndG) 81 [Deutscher Bundestag, 12. Wahlperiode. Drucksache Antrag des Freistaates Sachsen (6 May 1993) Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Verlängerung strafrechtlicher Verjährungsfristen 85 [Bundesrat, Dni-Liiti« 519 93| Empfehlungen der Ausschüsse (9 July 1993) Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Verlängerung strafi-echtlicher Verjährungsfristen 97 [Bundesrat, Drucksache 319/1/93; Dem icher Bundestag. 12. Wahlperiode, Drucksache 12/5613] Gesetzentwurf der Gruppe BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN (7 September 1993) Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Verlängerung von strafrechtlichen Verjährungsfristen bei DDR-Unrechtstaten 106 [Deutscher Bundestag, 12. Wahlperiode. Drucksache 12/56281 Gesetzentwurf der Fraktionen der CDU/CSU, SPD und F.D.P. (7 September 1993) Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Vereinheitlichung straf- rechtlicher Verjährungsfristen 1 1 1 [Deutscher Bundestag, 12 Wahlpcnotfc, Drucksache 12/5637) The Law Gesetz zur Verlängerung strafrechtlicher Verjährungsfristen (2. Verjährungsgesetz vom 27. September 1993) 1 19 [aundesgwcbLn 1993. Teil 1. Nr. 51.p 1657] THE MESSAGE OF THE GERMAN PATTERN An Interview with HANS-HEINRICH JESCHECK 1 23 [by Zsolt Zetenyj * Am Ii Tarkany-Szücs, h-om Üj Ita&vronzag, I (30 November 1991) 185. pp. 2 * 4] A Letter to the Editor by HANS-HEINRICH JESCHECK 1 34 [excerpts, on the 20th of Januar)-. 199-1] THE CZECH LAW ON THE ILLEGALITY OF THE COMMUNIST REGIME Zákon a protiprávnosti komunistického režimu a odporu proti nemu (9 July 1993) 139 Duvodova zpráva 140 [motion No. 376 in original type] Constitutional Court decision No. 19/93 (21 December 1993) 145 [from original typescript] APPENDIX THE MESSAGE OF THE INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS Expert Opinion to the Hungarian Parliament by M. CHERIF BASSIOUNI 173 [on the 30th of October. 1991) A Letter to Dr. Zsolt Zétényi by Lord KlRKHILL 175 [on the 28th of June. 1993) PREFACE In the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that have undertaken to change their political systems in recent years, the natural desire to start life anew could rest exclusively on another desire altogether — namely, on the need to settle the issues of the past Whether explicitly or mutely, the latter can manifest itself in several different forms, ranging from a prevalence in society of the ethos of aversion to acting in any which way, from steering a sober middle course to a radical means of calling to account or even to letting all hell break lose: This apparent freedom of choice may give the impression that the only reasonable and practicable option, that which also entails genuine social goals, is to focus our attention exclusively on our future. After all, if we become wrapped up by our past, we are bound to remain captives of our instinctual selves. Only our grievances or some externally elicited desire have the power to make us bury ourselves in our past. However, both have only negative and destructive results to offer, since they cannot be simultaneously constructive or beneficial in any way. Meanwhile, the experiences of those regional countries that approach the issue from different angles lead us to conclude that, after all, our choice does make a difference. Our answers to the questions of the past set a course for our approach to the future. This is why the history, traditions, and customs (and of course also the prevailing degree of maneuverability and preconditions) of each country have a direct influence on the extent to. which their peoples identify with these dilemmas and also on the answers they eventually find. People may be prepared to look all sorts of problems in the face in a calm and level headed manner. They may just as well feel an urge to just wipe these problems under the carpet. And they may also feel inclined to dodge these problems by loosening the reins or fanning passions to a heat. However, since man is caught between past and future, his answer to one set of problems directly determines his answer to another, related set of problems. Le style, e'est I'homme mime. But style is also the system itself. And this problem becomes all the more pronounced if we make people conscious of the fact that in the realm of the law, the relationship between past and future is not merely logical or social in nature. If we consider these problems in a legal context, we are bound to realize that our constitutional ideals cannot hold water if they do not simultaneously help us to look our past in the face. Should these ideals turn out to be unfit in helping us transcend the past, our initial enthusiasm would inevitably cool off, our constitutional ideals themselves would lose their moral cohesion and appeal, and would eventually dry out, as it were, democratic pathos and perspective evaporating away. Hungary was among the first countries in the region to have made serious efforts toward finding appropriate answers to this historically arduous massive and exceptional challenge. As well known, at the time, there were no external patterns for this country to adopt. We are familiar with the results of the efforts Hungary has made over the past few years, and we are aware of the occasional mistakes, the weaknesses, and the lack of organization this process has entailed. And yet, we cannot but admit that the actual results of these diverse efforts and often contradictory attempts were to a decisive extent determined by hard facts and the external and internal conditions that defined the process of changing the nation's political system. The experiences of success and failure can both be lost to memory. At the same time, the realm of the subconscious is immense in both the community and the individual. We have a broad stage on which to maneuver, and freedom of choice is also ours. But the interaction between past and future we can never ignore. Our past is our future. And this is true the other way around as well; our power and ability to control the future has its roots primarily in our past. * One of the toughest nuts to crack for those attempting to look the past in the eye has been the dilemma over the issue of delivering historical justice. In a strictly legal sense, statutory limitation lies at the core of this problem. Practically speaking, we can identify only one approach to the issue of statutory limitation as prevailing in Hungary today. This approach is the one that bears the seal of approval of the Constitutional Court — the legal body charged with exercising control over the sovereign powers of Parliament. This approval is considered authoritative, and in principle it is irrevocable. Of course, people are free to ask whether the decision at issue fits into the established traditions of constitutionalism in Europe; whether it peremptorily follows or can at least be deduced from the text of our prevailing Constitution; or whether it is theoretically well-founded and buttressed by anything other than the seal of the body itself. But it is to no avail to ask such questions, since they have no power whatsoever to alter the decision's definitive force. In Hungary, this development is not in the least accidental or lacking in precedent. Among other things, it entails that peculiar
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