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The German constitutional court (BverfG) declared many part of the law regulating the German secret agency "Bundesnachrichtendienst" (Federal Intelligence Service; BND) for unlawful and unconstitutional.

The key points:
- The freedom of press and the right for privacy are human rights, not just for Germans
- Uncontrolled and targetless, without protection for e.g. foreign journalists
- No independent control institution
- Lawmakers completely did not mention why they see a reason why human rights can be restricted, but intentionally did not respect them
- There must be specific reasons to give data to other countries' secret agencies

Sources (in German):
- https://spiegel.de/netzwelt/...
- https://golem.de/news/...
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Comments
  • 5
    The Grundgesetz could be the only constitution that grants rights to humans, not only people of the country.
  • 3
    human righta mean nothing on paper if they're not enforced.

    maybe you can get giant slingsjot guy to make you all some menacing giant slingshots?
  • 5
    The reaction of the German government will be to either just ignore that outcome because there's no punishment for violating the constitution.

    Or they make only cosmetic changes and gain some more years until the next court round, possibly betting on having put enough obedient judges into the constitutional court until then.
  • 1
    @Fast-Nop thats how I would do it if I were them
  • 3
    @stop The Dutch constitution applies to all humans residing in an area under Dutch jurisdiction, whether they are citizens or not -- excluding the articles about citizenship, army conscription, political electability, voting rights, labor rights and social security rights which specifically mention citizenship. But education, freedom of expression, privacy, legal counsel, access to healthcare, etc are equal for everyone residing in the country.

    Not that it matters, because way too many clauses are in the form: "All humans have the right to X (subject to statutory limitations and exceptions)" -- Exceptions which make the whole constitutional article pretty much void.
  • 0
    @bittersweet One of the reasons why German jurisdiction is that way is to prosecute Germans who are doing things in other countries that are legal there but not in Germany.

    Examples are sex tourism with minors in Thailand, or operating Nazi websites outside of Germany.
  • 1
    @Fast-Nop Yeah, same with Dutch law.

    It applies to the "union" of the set of citizens, and the set of people residing in the country, usually by just using the words like "*Anyone* who deliberately robs another of his life will, if found guilty, be punished with..."

    That means that if you are a German who murders an American in Russia, you can still be punished when visiting the Netherlands -- and the other way around, if another country's government is found to infringe upon a non-citizen's rights it can be grounds to give asylum. I have an adopted foster kid in my extended family who was allowed to stay in NL because she's openly gay, and her country refused her healthcare because of it.

    But, our constitution is also very flawed -- plenty of exceptions.

    I also disagree on a fundamental level that "freedom of religion" can take precedence in certain cases over other laws and constitutional articles.
  • 1
    @bittersweet What country punishes women for being into men?! California?
  • 1
    класс
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