Berlin clause

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The Berlin clause was a clause contained in most of the German federal laws passed up until 1990 , which became obsolete in the course of German reunification . It is therefore no longer included in laws passed since 1990. For reasons of constitutional history, it is retained for documentation in older laws .

According to the handbook of legal formality (2008) of the Federal Ministry of Justice (BMJ) "it should be repealed when the next amendment to the main law takes place or, if necessary, overwritten by revising or replacing". In more recent linguistic usage, the term is sometimes used for laws that grant the city or state of Berlin a special status.

background

Due to the four-power status of Berlin , German federal laws in the period from 1949 ( establishment of the Federal Republic ) to reunification in the area of West Berlin were not directly valid. Every German law that was to apply in Berlin therefore had to be ratified separately by the Berlin House of Representatives as part of a total of six transitional laws (between 1950 and 1990, primarily to regulate federal aid, an annual subsidy from the federal budget) . For this purpose, the laws of the time contained a clause (called the Berlin Clause ), from which it emerged that the law in question was to become valid in Berlin and according to which standards it was to be put into effect there. In the course of reunification, the state of Berlin came under the scope of the Basic Law . From then on, all federal laws applied there directly and the Berlin clauses lost all meaning.

example

An example that still exists is the Berlin clause in the Product Liability Act (ProdHaftG): “This law also applies in the state of Berlin in accordance with Section 13 (1) of the Third Transitional Act. Statutory ordinances that are issued on the basis of this Act also apply in the State of Berlin in accordance with Section 14 of the Third Transitional Act. "( Section 18 ProdHaftG of December 15, 1989)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BMJ: Handbuch der Rechtsformlichkeit , 3rd ed., Rn. 652 f.
  2. ↑ Wowereit can hope for the Berlin clause , Spiegel Online , December 16, 2004.
  3. ↑ Cf. Art. 87 II ff. Constitution of Berlin of September 1, 1950 (VOBl. I p. 435).
  4. ↑ See preamble to the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany .
  5. ↑ More precisely: With the replacement of the third transition law by the sixth transition law on October 3, 1990.
  6. ↑ Third Transitional Act