Referendum on the reform of the judicial structure in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

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Result of the referendum
          quorum 33.3%
 %
40
30th
20th
10
0
19.7%
4%
Yes
No
Template: election chart / maintenance / notes
Remarks:
z The percentages are based on the number of voters.

The referendum on the judicial structure reform was a vote in the form of a referendum on September 6, 2015 in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . It was this to be the second referendum and the first on a successful referendum declining popular vote in the country's history.

The referendum was aimed at the repeal of the Court Structure Reorganization Act passed in 2013 , which among other things provided for the closure of some local courts and was implemented from October 2014 to February 2017. The referendum was initiated by the Pro Justiz Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Association and the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Judges ' Association .

The referendum failed spuriously . About 83 percent of the participants voted for the repeal of the judicial structural reform. However, the approval quorum of a third of all eligible voters was not achieved. Only 19.7 percent of around 1.3 million eligible voters voted “Yes”. The referendum's draft law has therefore not been accepted. The reform of the judicial structure was therefore implemented further.

Subject matter and history

Change in
district court districts
from 2014 to 2017
District court districts in MV before the judicial structure reform.png
before the judicial structure reform came into force
District court districts in MV after the judicial structure reform.png
after full implementation of the judicial structure reform

In October 2013, the state parliament decided with the majority of the red-black coalition on a court structure reform , which among other things provides for a reduction of the local courts in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania from 21 to 10 and was implemented from October 2014 to February 2017. With the gradual abolition of the local courts, a total of six branches have been set up. Until the referendum, the following district courts were repealed in the course of implementation.

In addition, the Labor Court in Neubrandenburg was repealed and converted to the Foreign Chamber of the Labor Court in Stralsund . Furthermore, the regional social court has moved its seat from Neubrandenburg to Neustrelitz.

The state government justified the need for the reform primarily with the declining population and demographic change in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Overall, this development led to a lower input burden for the courts. At the same time, due to the population decline, not only the tax revenue but also the financial allocations from the EU and the funds from the state financial equalization were reduced , which made it necessary to save costs through an adjustment of the judiciary. In addition, the smaller courts were not able to carry out the tasks assigned to them efficiently. The state government expected in 2013 with a total cost reduction through the reform of discounted approximately 33.6 million euros over a period of 25 years.

The Pro Justiz Association and the Association of Judges demanded that the reform be withdrawn and initially organized the collection of signatures for the popular initiative “For the preservation of a citizen-friendly court structure in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania”. Following the recommendation of the European and Legal Committee , the state parliament approved the motion of the popular initiative, but the majority saw no contradiction to the planned reform. Thereupon the referendum against the judicial structure reform was organized.

The initiators of the referendum stated that the judicial structure reform had been decided without a reliable analysis of the need for reform and without examining alternatives to the court closings. In particular, it was criticized that the closure of the local courts increased some judicial districts and thus the distances to the competent court to such an extent that the guarantee of justice in some parts of the country would be jeopardized. In some judicial districts, for example, the distances to the district court increased to over 50 or even over 60 km. In addition, the savings effects were questioned, among other things because the cost reductions planned in 2013 only amounted to 0.019% of the state budget at the time .

Because of the looming referendum, the parliamentary groups Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and Die Linke undertook two legislative proposals in the state parliament to suspend the closure of further local courts for two years. These were rejected by the government groups in October 2014 and January 2015. Stefanie Drese (SPD) justified this with the fact that the requested postponement of the reform was not compatible with constitutional principles, a referendum could not lead to a state parliament decision not being implemented. Even after it became clear that there would be a referendum, the Greens and the Left failed in their third attempt to postpone the reform in the state parliament session on July 1, 2015 due to the dissenting votes of the CDU and SPD.

Legal basis

Sample of the voting slip

The people's legislation in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is in

regulated. In addition, the Ministry of the Interior and Sport issued an administrative regulation for the preparation and implementation of referendums in June 2015 . Since a successful referendum was a novelty in the history of the federal state , the regulations on the procedure for referendums have not yet been applied in practice. The debate about the reform of the judicial structure therefore led to an intensified dispute between the state parliament and the state government with regard to the legal basis of people's legislation. In comparison to other federal states, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had relatively high hurdles for referendums. The governing parties agreed with the democratic opposition on a lowering. However, this only took place in June 2016. The legal framework at the time is therefore described below.

Popular initiative

In order to bring about a referendum, a successful referendum is necessary. The popular initiative , on the other hand, is not a mandatory preliminary stage for a referendum. At least 15,000 eligible voters have to sign the popular initiative for it to be successful. The state parliament has to pass a resolution on the content of a successful popular initiative within three months. Although the popular initiative “For the preservation of a citizen-oriented court structure in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania” was accepted by the state parliament, it decided to reform the court structure.

Referendum

The content of a referendum must be the enactment, amendment or repeal of a state law. The bill of the referendum against the reform of the judicial structure contained the repeal of the current versions

and would have reinstated the respective versions that existed before the reform of the judicial structure. The ordinance of the Ministry of Justice for the implementation of the Court Structure Restructuring Act, which contains in particular the Branch Ordinance , would then be superfluous and should therefore also be repealed by the draft law.

The legal provisions of the time stipulated that at least 120,000 signatures from eligible voters were required for a successful referendum. That corresponded to about 8.7% of the eligible voters. The state parliament has to deal with a successful referendum. If the latter does not accept the coveted bill essentially unchanged within six months, a referendum will take place at the earliest three, at the latest six months after the deadline has expired or the bill has been rejected.

Referendum

In order for the referendum to be successful, the majority of the voting participants and, according to the legal situation at the time, at least one third of all eligible voters had to agree. If the majority and the quorum of approval are achieved, the Prime Minister must draft the bill immediately and announce it in the Law and Ordinance Gazette. The law would then have come into force the day after it was promulgated, which in the case of a referendum on the reform of the judicial structure would have meant that all court closings, conversions and relocations would have to be reversed within a very short time.

Procedure of the popular initiative and the referendum

The Association of Judges and the Pro Justiz Association collected around 36,000 signatures for the popular initiative . The counting was ended with 19,667 valid votes because the required number of 15,000 was exceeded.

As the reform was nevertheless decided, the Association of Judges and the Pro Justiz Association launched the referendum against the reform of the judicial structure, which was supported by local politicians from all parties.

Initially, signature lists were available in local courts, law firms and town halls, but Justice Minister Uta-Maria Kuder (CDU) forbade the judges' association to display the lists in the courts. By mid-August 2014, the initiators had collected over 100,000 signatures. In view of the emerging success of the popular initiative, Kuder forbade the district court directors to provide information on the status of the implementation of the judicial structural reform.

On December 9, 2014, the initiators handed over 150,000 signatures to the President of the State Parliament, Sylvia Bretschneider . The lists should be checked within two to three months by the regional returning officer Doris Petersen-Goes. Since the State Statistical Office was overwhelmed with counting and checking the lists, ministries and the State Chancellery assigned employees.

The counting and verification of votes was completed when 120,312 valid signatures were found.

The referendum against the reform of the judicial structure is the country's first successful one. In 2007 the only referendum to date, the aim of which was a new school law, failed because the required number of signatures could not be obtained. The only referendum so far held in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania took place on June 12, 1994. This was a referendum initiated by the state government and the state parliament , with which the state constitution of the newly founded state was adopted.

Implementation of the referendum

Poster at the entrance of the former Hagenow District Court

Since the state parliament finally rejected the draft law on June 3, 2015, the state government decided that the referendum will take place on September 6, 2015.

Although this was the first possible date for implementation, the choice of date has been criticized. Since the summer holidays in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania ended shortly before, some offices were overwhelmed with the preparation of the vote. One problem here was the recruitment of volunteers to carry out the voting and counting of the votes. Therefore, some positions planned for cost reasons the magnification of precincts by reducing the number of voting areas . The initiators of the referendum saw it as an inadmissible unequal treatment of referendums and elections. However, the regional returning officer judged the enlargement of the electoral district to be legitimate.

The wording of the ballot also caused problems. The judges' association complained that the voting question was misleading, since opponents of the reform had to vote “yes”. The reason for this is that the referendum raised the question of repealing the reform. No votes therefore did not represent a rejection, but an approval of the reform of the judicial structure. The Land Returning Officer also admitted that this can lead to confusion. It therefore published an explanation of the voting slip for clarification.

The Ministry of Justice was actively promoting people to vote "no" in the referendum. The judges' association and the Pro Justiz association saw this as a violation of the requirement that the state government should behave neutrally with regard to the vote. However , the state constitutional court rejected an application for an interim injunction because the state government's public relations work would not influence the constitutional implementation of the referendum.

The referendum was held on September 6, 2015 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. To this end, 1405 voting halls have been set up in the country. It was also possible to vote by letter . The Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired provided voting slip templates with which blind and visually impaired people could take part in the referendum. Alternatively, they could have someone they trust help them with voting.

Voting result

On the day of the referendum there were 1,334,220 voters in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The quorum of approval was 444,740 yes-votes. Since 262,672 yes-votes and 53,014 no-votes were cast, the referendum failed incorrectly .

Final result (in percent)
Local authority Participation (
eligible voters) 		Yes
(participant *) 		Yes
(eligible voters) 		No
(participant *) 		Invalid
(participant)
Coat of arms of the state capital SchwerinState capital Schwerin 19.5 72.7 14.2 27.3 0.3
Coat of arms of the Hanseatic city of RostockHanseatic City of Rostock 16.5 76.8 12.7 23.2 0.3
Coat of arms of the district of Northwest Mecklenburg Northwest Mecklenburg District 19.6 80.2 15.7 19.8 0.4
Coat of arms of the Ludwigslust-Parchim district Ludwigslust-Parchim district 27.4 82.8 22.6 17.2 0.3
Coat of arms of the Rostock district Rostock district 21.4 80.6 17.2 19.4 0.2
Coat of arms of the Mecklenburg Lake District district District of Mecklenburg Lake District 23.9 85.1 20.3 14.9 0.2
Coat of arms of the district of Western Pomerania-Rügen District of Western Pomerania-Rügen 27.0 85.1 22.9 14.9 0.4
Coat of arms of the Vorpommern-Greifswald district District of Vorpommern-Greifswald 29.7 88.9 26.4 11.1 0.2
Coat of arms of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (total) 23.7 83.2 19.7 16.8 0.3
Legend:
Majority achieved
Approval quorum not reached
* without considering invalid votes

Judicial reviews of the reform

Constitutional complaint

A lawyer from Heringsdorf lodged a constitutional complaint against the court restructuring law . However, on April 30, 2015, the State Constitutional Court rejected this as inadmissible because the fundamental rights to freedom of occupation, general freedom of action and property were not violated. A trust that the current court structure would be unchangeable is not protected by fundamental rights.

Norm control procedures

Parts of the branch ordinance were declared ineffective by the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Higher Administrative Court on June 2, 2015 as part of a regulatory review . The reason for this was a lawsuit by the Presidium of the Stralsund District Court , which was restricted by the ordinance to distribute business . This is a violation of the Courts Constitution Act and thus higher-ranking federal law . This was preceded by a judicial review complaint by the Presidium of the Bergen auf Rügen District Court , which was rejected as inadmissible in March 2015 due to the lack of authorization to file an application. The Higher Administrative Court did not allow an appeal against this judgment. A complaint against this before the Federal Administrative Court was unsuccessful.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Law amending the Court Structure Act and other legal provisions (Court Structure Reform Act) of November 11, 2013, GVOBl. MV 2013, p. 609 (PDF; 1 MB).
  2. ↑ Minutes of the plenary. (PDF; 1.2 MB) 6/50. State Parliament Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , October 9, 2013, pp. 37-69, 108 , accessed on December 15, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Art. 6 of the Judicial Structure Reform Act.
  4. ↑ Three good reasons for the reform of the judicial structure. Ministry of Justice opinion. Ministry of Justice of the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, archived from the original on July 7, 2015 ; Retrieved July 7, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Bill. (PDF; 3.0 MB) Printed matter 6/1620. State Parliament Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, March 4, 2013, pp. 1–5, 12, 44, 80 , accessed on April 1, 2015 .
  6. ^ Application of the popular initiative. (PDF; 152 kB) Printed matter 6/1021. State Parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, August 14, 2012, accessed on June 3, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Decision recommendation and report of the European and Legal Committee. (PDF; 177 kB) Printed matter 6/1263. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Parliament, October 16, 2012, p. 9 , accessed on August 10, 2015 .
  8. ^ Grounds for the referendum. (PDF; 535 kB) Information for the district court district Anklam. (No longer available online.) Klaus Nicolai, August 2014, pp. 6–10 , archived from the original on April 1, 2015 ; Retrieved April 1, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / gerichtsstruktur-mv.de
  9. ↑ Axel Peters: Judicial structural reform : Landtag should decide in the name of the people , DRiZ 2013, 253, (available free of charge for registered users at jurion.de ).
  10. ↑ Minutes of the decision. (PDF; 44.0 kB) 77th meeting. State Parliament Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, October 15, 2014, p. 6 , accessed on February 24, 2015 . Decision minutes. (PDF; 35.1 kB) 86th meeting. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Parliament, January 28, 2015, p. 5 , accessed on February 24, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Opposition fails with attempt to postpone judicial reform, focus.de, January 28, 2015.
  12. ↑ Minutes of the decision. (PDF; 94.2 kB) 96th meeting. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Parliament, July 1, 2015, p. 5 , accessed on July 3, 2015 .
  13. ^ Constitution of the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Verf MV) of May 23, 1993, GVOBl. MV 1993, p. 372 .
  14. ↑ Law on the implementation of initiatives from the people, referendums and referendums in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (referendum law) VaG MV of January 31, 1994, GVOBl. MV 1994, p. 127 .
  15. ↑ Ordinance on the implementation of the law for the implementation of initiatives from the people, popular initiative and referendum in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania of February 1, 1994, GVOBl. MV 1994, p. 168 .
  16. ↑ Law on the State Constitutional Court of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (State Constitutional Court Act - LVerfGG MV) of 19 July 1994, GVOBl. MV 1994, p. 734 .
  17. ↑ Preparation and implementation of referendums in accordance with the Popular Voting Act , administrative regulation of June 25, 2015, Official Gazette. MV 2015, p. 358 .
  18. ↑ Statement from Prof. Dr. Claus Dieter Classen in the European and Legal Committee. (PDF; 975 kB) Scrap printed matter 6 / 66-2. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Parliament, September 12, 2012, p. 3 , accessed on August 18, 2015 .
  19. ^ Constitutional amendment: Strengthening direct democracy , ndr.de, December 18, 2014.
  20. ↑ Art. 59 para. 2 sentence 1 Verf MV in conjunction with § 7 sentence 2 no. 2 VaG MV.
  21. ↑ § 9 para. 2 sentence 1 VaG MV.
  22. ↑ Minutes of the plenary. (PDF; 1.2 MB) 6/28. Landtag Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, October 24, 2012, p. 56 , accessed on August 22, 2015 .
  23. ↑ Art. 60, Paragraph 1, Sentence 1, Ordinance, in conjunction with Section 13, Sentence 2, No. 1 of the VaG MV
  24. ↑ Judicial Structure Act in the version published on April 7, 1998, GVOBl. MV 1998, pp. 44, 549 .
  25. ↑ Law for the implementation of the Court Structure Act of June 10, 1992, GVOBl. MV 1992, p. 14 .
  26. ↑ Disciplinary Act of the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (State Disciplinary Act - LDG MV) of July 4, 2005, GVOBl. MV 2005, p. 274 .
  27. ↑ Ordinance on the concentration of competences of the courts (Concentration Ordinance - KonzVO MV) of March 28, 1994, GVOBl. MV 1994, p. 514 .
  28. ↑ Art. 1 of the draft law according to Art. 60 of the MV on the repeal of the amendments resolved by the Court Structure Reform Act, Landtag printed matter 6/3750, p. 10 (PDF; 865 kB).
  29. ↑ Ordinance on the Implementation of the Court Structure Reform Act (GerStrNeuGVO) of January 15, 2014, GVOBl. MV 2014, p. 29 .
  30. ↑ Ordinance on the local court branches and further regulations for the implementation of the Court Structure Reorganization Act (Branch Ordinance - Branch Ordinance MV) of January 15, 2014, GVOBl. MV 2014, p. 29 .
  31. ↑ Art. 2 of the draft law according to Art. 60 of the MV.
  32. ↑ Art. 60 para. 1 sentence 3 Verf MV in conjunction with § 13 sentence 2 no. 2 and Article 14 para. 2 sentence 2 no. 1 VaG MV.
  33. ↑ Art. 60 para. 3 Verf MV in conjunction with § 18 S. 1 VaG MV.
  34. ↑ Art. 60 Para. 4 S. 1 Verf MV in conjunction with § 22 Para. 2 VaG MV.
  35. ↑ § 22 Paragraph 4 VaG.
  36. ↑ Art. 3 of the draft law according to Art. 60 of the MV.
  37. ↑ Judges 'Association launches citizens' petition on controversial court reform, focus.de, March 11, 2014.
  38. ↑ Appendix 1 to the popular initiative application. (PDF; 152 kB) Printed matter 6/1021. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Parliament, August 14, 2012, p. 3 , accessed on June 3, 2015 .
  39. ^ Justice: Kuder bans lists for referendums from court buildings , focus.de, March 13, 2014.
  40. ↑ Now things are getting serious for Minister Kuder , svz.de, August 14, 2014.
  41. ↑ Minister takes judges curb , nnn.de, August 28, 2014.
  42. ↑ Around 150,000 signatures against judicial reform ( memento of December 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), ndr.de, December 9, 2014.
  43. ↑ Citizens' petition : For counting 25 employees , nnn.de, December 6, 2014.
  44. ↑ press release. 1/2015. State Returning Officer Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, February 24, 2015, accessed on February 24, 2015 .
  45. ^ Result of the referendum on the state constitution. (No longer available online.) Statistical Office Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, June 12, 1994, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on July 30, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / sisonline.statistik.mv.de
  46. ↑ Minutes of the decision. (PDF; 100 kB) 94th meeting. State Parliament Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, June 3, 2015, p. 3 , accessed on June 4, 2015 .
  47. ↑ press release. 111/2015. Ministry of the Interior and Sport of the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, June 16, 2015, accessed on June 17, 2015 .
  48. ↑ Fewer polling stations for voting on court reform, nordkurier.de, June 17, 2015.
  49. ↑ Joint press release. (PDF; 91.6 kB) Judges Association MV and Association “Pro Justiz”, June 17, 2015, accessed on July 1, 2015 .
  50. ↑ press release. 2/2015. State Returning Officer Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, June 17, 2015, accessed on July 1, 2015 .
  51. ↑ Judge: Unfair referendum , svz.de, August 20, 2015 accessed on August 22, 2015.
  52. ↑ press release. 5/2015. State Returning Officer Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, August 21, 2015, accessed on August 22, 2015 .
  53. ↑ Explanation of the voting slip of the state returning officer Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, (PDF; 87.3 kB).
  54. ↑ press release. 65/15. Ministry of Justice of the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, August 25, 2015, archived from the original on August 27, 2015 ; accessed on August 27, 2015 .
  55. ↑ Joint press release. Richterbund MV and association “Pro Justiz”, August 27, 2015, archived from the original on September 9, 2015 ; accessed on August 27, 2015 .
  56. ↑ LVerfG MV, decision of September 1, 2015 - LVerfG 6/15 , (PDF; 108 kB).
  57. ↑ press release. 6/2015. State Returning Officer Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, August 24, 2015, accessed on September 9, 2015 .
  58. ↑ press release. 8/2015. State Returning Officer Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, September 1, 2015, accessed on September 9, 2015 .
  59. ↑ press release. 7/2015. State Returning Officer Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, August 25, 2015, accessed on September 9, 2015 .
  60. ↑ press release. 14/2015. State Returning Officer Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, September 16, 2015, accessed on September 17, 2015 .
  61. ↑ LVerfG MV, decision of April 30, 2015 - LVerfG 7/14 , (PDF; 75 kB);
    Press release. 36/15. Ministry of Justice of the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, May 8, 2015, archived from the original on July 7, 2015 ; accessed on May 8, 2015 .
  62. ↑ OVG MV, judgment of June 2, 2015 - 2 K 13/15 .
  63. ↑ OVG MV, judgment of March 25, 2015 - 2 K 22/14 .
  64. ↑ BVerwG, decision of October 27, 2015 - 1 BN 1.15 .