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streitbare Demokratie
“Militant democracy,” what Germany has according to the German constitutional court. In such a system, the free democratic fundamental order cannot be ended by legal means. Even a majority of voters...
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Vorratsdatenspeicherung
“Reservoir data storage,” “advance data saving.” When a government collects and saves people’s personal communication data in advance, without cause, before needing the data. Germany is in trouble with...
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Überhangmandate
“Overhang mandates,” overhang seats. Unusual parliamentary seats resulting from Germany’s two-vote election system. With their first vote, burghers choose a candidate. With their second vote, a...
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Lauschangriff
Literally, “eavesdropping attack.” Lauschangriff was coined in 1977 after an illegal government bugging operation first reported by Der Spiegel. The phrase “der grosse Lauschangriff,” the great or big...
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Bundesverfassungsgerichtsentscheidung, BVerfGE
Decision of the “Federal Constitutional Court,” the German equivalent, more or less, of the USA’s Supreme Court. The Court consists of two Senates and six chambers, each specializing in different...
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Wahlrecht
“Voting law.” The Bundestag is debating an overhaul of Germany’s electoral system. On 17 Oct 2012, Spiegel reported one issue was that the reforms currently under discussion might increase the size of...
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Anti-Terror-Datei
Central federal file of police and intelligence services’ information about potential and actual terrisss but also possibly about innocent burghers. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has said this...
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2649 Belege
“2,649 pieces of evidence” which have been collected in a report that will be used in preliminary discussions of another runup to an attempt at banning the far-right German political party NDP...
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Windhund-Verfahren
“Greyhound method” for first-come-first-serve allocation of press seats in the small state courtroom where the last surviving member of the neonazi serial-killing terrorist cell will go on trial this...
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Volkszählungsurteil
“People-counting judgment,” the census decision made by the German constitutional court in the 1980′s. An online article I found on the history of Germany’s strongest interest in Datenschutz und...
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Rasterfahndung
“Grid search,” “raster manhunt.” Pre-crime data dragnet. Controversial German police method pushed into law in the 1970′s “to deal with the Red Army Faction,” preserved through the 1990′s “because of...
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Minderheitenrechte im Bundestag
Bundestag minority rights, minority meaning the multiple parties that aren’t part of the multiple-parties ruling coalition. Update on 09 Oct 2013: If the two biggest parties, Chancellor Merkel’s...
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Parteiengesetz
“Political parties law,” which defines some German election rules. An Armistice Day article in Spiegel.de on the continuance of the neonazi-legacy N.P.D. party’s temporary loss of government political...
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“Demokratie, Rechtsstaat, Gewaltenteilung, Grundrechte, ein freies...
Democracy, rule of law, separation of powers, basic rights, a free political life and the right to an effective opposition. A pundit professor on public broadcaster ARD said these are in principle the...
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Vorabentscheidungsverfahren
“Advance decision process.” For the first time ever, Germany’s supreme court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht in Karlsruhe, sent a case on to the European Union’s supreme court, the European Court of...
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Brennelementesteuer
A tax on the radioactive fuel elements used in nuclear reactors. Germany’s federal government created this tax in 2011 (the relevant law is called the, ahem, Kernbrennstoffsteuergesetz). Apparently the...
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Bundesverfassungsgerichtsreform
Reform of Germany’s supreme Constitutional Court. In an interview given because he wanted to encourage more discussion about the European Union, Constitutional Court president Andreas Voßkuhle...
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Verfassungsbeschwerde
Constitutional complaint, to be heard by Germany’s supreme Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe [Verfassungsgericht]. A Berlin attorney announced he will file a constitutional complaint with the...
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