The New Germany Part 20

The normal judicature shall be exercised by the Court of the Realm and the Courts of the Lands.

ARTICLE 104.

Judges of the normal judicature shall be appointed for life. They may not be deposed from their office, either permanently or temporarily, nor may they be transferred to another bench, nor may they be pensioned off against their will, except in consequence of a judicial decision, and then only for the reasons, and in the form, laid down by law. Legislation may fix a retiring age, on reaching which judges must accept a pension.

This clause shall not affect suspension from office carried out in virtue of a legal enactment.

In the case of a redistribution of courts, or of circuits, the judicial administrations of the Lands may compel judges to accept transference to another bench, or pensions, but only with payment of full salary. This does not apply to commercial judges, a.s.sessors, or jurors.

ARTICLE 105.

Extraordinary courts are forbidden. Every person has the right to demand that he be produced before the competent Court. Legal enactments concerning military courts and courts-martial are not hereby affected. Military courts of honour are abolished.

ARTICLE 106.

The military judicature shall be abolished except in time of war and on board men of war. An act of the Realm shall make further provision.

ARTICLE 107.

Administrative courts both in the Realm and Lands shall be set up by legislation for the protection of the individual against decrees and ordinances of the administrative authorities.

ARTICLE 108.

An act of the Realm shall set up a Supreme Court for the German Realm.

GERMAN CONSt.i.tUTION

SECOND CHAPTER

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF CITIZENS[34]

SECTION I

THE INDIVIDUAL

ARTICLE 109.[35]

All Germans are equal before the law.

Men and women have, as citizens, fundamentally the same civil rights and duties.

Public privileges or disadvantages arising out of birth or rank shall be abolished. t.i.tles of n.o.bility count only as part of a name; they may no longer be conferred.

Only such t.i.tles may be conferred as indicate an office or a profession; academic rank is not hereby affected.

The State may confer no orders or insignia.

No German may accept t.i.tles or orders from a foreign State.[36]

ARTICLE 110.

Nationality of the Realm and of the Lands shall be acquired and lost as may be regulated by act of the Realm. Every national of a Land is at the same time a national of the Realm.

Every German has, in every Land, the same rights and duties as the nationals of that Land.

ARTICLE 111.

All Germans have the right of free movement throughout the Realm.

Every German has the right of staying and of settling in any part of the Realm he please; he has the right of acquiring property there and of earning his livelihood. This may only be restricted by act of the Realm.

ARTICLE 112.

Every German may emigrate to a foreign country. Emigration may only be restricted by act of the Realm.

All nationals have the right to the protection of the Realm both within and without the Realm, as against a foreign country.

No German may be handed over to a foreign Government for prosecution or punishment.[37]

ARTICLE 113.

The foreign speaking parts of the Realm shall not be obstructed, either legislatively or administratively, in the free development of their ethnological characteristics, especially in the use of their mother tongue in educational establishments, in internal administration and in the administration of justice.

ARTICLE 114.

Liberty of the person is inviolable. Restrictions on, or deprivation of, personal liberty may not be imposed by the public authorities except in virtue of a law.

Persons who have been deprived of their liberty must be informed on the following day at latest by what authority and on what grounds this has been ordered; they must have immediate opportunity of lodging objections against such deprivation of liberty.

ARTICLE 115.

Every German is master in his own dwelling, which is inviolable.

Exceptions are only admissible when the law so provides.