Association of Democratic Lawyers

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The Association of Democratic Jurists (VDJ) is a cross-professional legal organization based in Düsseldorf . It was founded in March 1972 on the initiative of the DKP . The association is a founding member of the European Association of Jurists for Democracy and Human Rights in the World. V. (EJDM) . The original name until the mid-1980s was Association of Democratic Lawyers .

program

“The association sees the foundations of its work in the guiding principles of freedom, equality, solidarity, democracy and the rule of law. According to the VDJ, the implementation of these guiding principles presupposes that every state, economic and private action can be held responsible for the urgent need to preserve the natural foundations of life.
The association is committed to the anti-fascist tradition and opposes nationalist and racist politics; it exercises international solidarity with all who work to enforce these principles. [...]
The association advocates international understanding, securing peace and respect for human, political and social fundamental rights on the basis of the Charter of the United Nations and international norms and pacts. "

An anti-constitutional organization?

Shortly after its founding, the VDJ was classified as an anti-constitutional organization by the federal and state authorities for the protection of the constitution. Not only was the DKP the godfather when it was founded, a good quarter of the board members were also registered DKP members. In addition, the typical communist jargon and terms of the statutes were cited as clues. In addition, an involvement in the "campaign policy" of the DKP was visible.

The SPD-led federal government took a somewhat more differentiated position here: although the constitution protection reports of 1973 and 1974 described the VDJ as a “communist aid organization”, the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior Gerhart Baum declared in the Bundestag: “There are [...] organizations, Although they were founded by the DKP and are supposed to serve its goals, they also have members who do not identify with communist goals and who even belong to democratic parties and organizations. The Federal Minister of the Interior includes the VDJ in this category ”. Nonetheless, membership of the VDJ was listed in numerous rejections from applicants for civil service as evidence of a lack of loyalty to the constitution. However, this was not practiced consistently and nationwide. After the " radical decree" was repealed in 1990 and the regular request to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution when hiring applicants in the public service was dropped, the classification became more or less meaningless.

Today neither the federal government nor the state of Bavaria list the VDJ in their reports on the protection of the constitution.

activities

The VDJ works in regional groups, for example in Berlin-Brandenburg, Bremen, Darmstadt, Dresden, Düsseldorf / Rhine-Ruhr, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich.

The VDJ awards the Hans Litten Prize every two years to lawyers who, according to the VDJ, have demonstrated a particularly high degree of democratic commitment, occasionally also with regard to their life's work. The award winner in 2008 was the lawyer and children's book author Heinrich Hannover , in 2012 the British lawyer Gareth Peirce and in 2014 the Turkish lawyer and President of the Progressive Lawyers Association Selçuk Kozağçli.

From 1973 to 1993 members published the quarterly journal Democracy and Law (DuR) and published the Internet platform RechtProgressiv.de.

The VDJ has working groups on family law / social policy and labor law. The working group on family law / social policy was founded in autumn 2005 and holds a workshop twice a year. The aim of these conferences is to create a forum for those professional groups who deal with developments in family law in their professional practice. In addition to the members of the VDJ, the Labor Law Working Group forms a forum for labor law experts who, in their work and according to their understanding, are oriented towards the interests of employees. In this context, lawyers, in particular lawyers specializing in labor law , full-time employees from the trade unions, judges of labor jurisdiction and representatives of law meet .

Federal Chairperson

Publications

The association was the publisher of some books, most of which were published by Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag , until the latter became insolvent in 1989 after the GDR lost its financial support .

  • The Basic Law: Constitutional Development and Democratic Movement in the FRG . Pahl-Rugenstein, 1974
  • The professional prohibition practice in the FRG and its legalization by the new special law . Reprint from Democracy and Law , Issue 2. 1974, Pahl-Rugenstein, 1974
  • Hitler's Blood Justice: A Chapter Still To Be Managed German Past . Röderberg-Verlag, 1981

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Statutes of the Association of Democratic Jurists eV In: vdj.de. October 28, 2018, accessed May 13, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (ed.): Verfassungsschutzbericht 1979. August 1980, pp. 86–87 , accessed on May 13, 2020 . Wolfgang Rudzio : The erosion of demarcation: On the relationship between the democratic left and communists in the Federal Republic of Germany. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1988, ISBN 3-531-12045-X , p. 24 .
  3. ↑ II. Tasks of the Association, § 2. In: Statutes of the Association of Democratic Jurists eV October 28, 2018, accessed on May 13, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Aha, the swamp . In: Der Spiegel . No. 48 , 1975, pp. 70-73 ( online ).
  5. ^ Günther Nollau : The wretched intolerance . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 1976, p. 62-63 ( online ).
  6. ↑ a b Dominik Rigoll: decree on the employment of radicals in the public sector [radicals adoption], January 28, 1972: Introduction to Radical adoption. In: 100 (0) key documents to German history in the 20th century. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, July 23, 2018, accessed on May 13, 2020 .
  7. ^ A b German Bundestag, stenographic report, 211th session. (pdf; 928 kB) January 14, 1976, pp. 14587–14590 , accessed on April 4, 2018 .
  8. ^ German Bundestag, stenographic report, 226th session. (pdf; 1.3 MB) March 10, 1976, pp. 15733–15734 , accessed on April 4, 2018 .
  9. ^ Udo Baron: West German left-wing extremism after the KPD ban. (pdf; 82 kB) Bavarian Information Center against Extremism, June 29, 2011, archived from the original on April 5, 2018 ; accessed on May 13, 2020 .