---

Contents

Preface
Bibliography
Verjährung von Straftaten, die in der ehemaligen DDR begangen wurden

THE GERMAN LAW I ON STATUTORY LIMITATIONS

Initiatives, drafts
  Antrag der Abgeordneten Dr. Hans de With, Hermann Bachmaier, Hans Gottfried Bernrath, Dr. Herta Däubler-Gmelin, Hans-Joachim Hacker, Walter Kolbow, Dr. Uwe Küster, Dr. Jürgen Meyer (Ulm), Dr. Eckhart Pick, Margot von Renesse, Dr. Jürgen Schmude, Wieland Sorge, Ludwig Stiegler, Dieter Wiefelspütz, Dr. Peter Struck. Hans-Ulrich Klose und der Fraktion der SPD [Drucksache 12/2132]
  Gesetzesantrag der Länder Bayern, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern und Thüringen [Drucksache 141/92]
  Gesetzentwurf des Abgeordneten Dr. Wolfgang Ullmann und der Gruppe Bündnis 90/Die Grünen [Drucksache 12/2332]

Scholarly opinions at the Bundesrat hearing (11 November 1992)
  Verfassungsrechtliche Fragen einer Regelung der Verjährung von Unrechtstaten in der ehemaligen DDR. Stellungnahme für don Rechtsausschuß des Deutschen Bundestages
  Stellungnahme zur Frage der Verjährung von DDR-Unrechtstaten (Anhörung des Rechtsausschusses des Deutschen Bundestages am 11. 11. 1992)
  Stellungnahme zur nichtöffentlichen Anhörung zu den Entwürfen eines Gesetzes zur Verjährung von SED-Unrechtstaten am 11. November 1992 vor dem Rechtsausschuß des Deutschen Bundestages
  Zur Verjährung von SED-Unrechtstaten

The Law
  Gesetz über das Ruhen der Verjährung bei SED-Unrechtstaten (VerjährungsG)

THE GERMAN LAW II ON STATUTORY LIMITATIONS

Initiatives, drafts
  Gesetzesantrag des Landes Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (3 March 1992). Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Verlängerung strafrechtlicher Verjährungsfristen [Bundesrat. Drucksache 147/92]
  Gesetzentwurf der Fraktion der SPD (12 February 1993) Entwurf eines ... Strafrechtsänderungsgesetzes - Verjährung von Straftaten nach §§ 234 a, 241 a StGB (...StrÄndG) [Deutscher Bundestag, 12. Wahlperiode. Drucksache 12/4349]
  Antrag des Freistaates Sachsen (6 May 1993). Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Verlängerung strafrechtlicher Verjährungsfristen [Bundesrat, Drucksache 319/93]
  Empfehlungen der Ausschüsse (9 July 1993) Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Verlängerung strafrechtlicher Verjährungsfristen [Bundesrat, Drucksache 319/1/93; Deutscher Bundestag, 12. Wahlperiode, Drucksache 12/5613]
  Gesetzentwurf der Gruppe Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (7 September 1993). Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Verlängerung von strafrechtlichen Verjährungsfristen bei DDR-Unrechtstaten [Deutscher Bundestag, 12. Wahlperiode. Drucksache 12/5628]
  Gesetzentwurf der Fraktionen der CDU/CSU, SPD und F.D.P. (7 September 1993). Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Vereinheitlichung strafrechtlicher Verjährungsfristen [Deutscher Bundestag, 12 Wahlperiode, Drucksache 12/5637]

The Law
Gesetz zur Verlängerung strafrechtlicher Verjährungsfristen (2. Verjährungsgesetz vom 27. September 1993) [Bundesgesetzblatt 1993. Teil 1. Nr. 51.p 1657]

THE MESSAGE OF THE GERMAN PATTERN

An Interview with Hans-Heinrich Jescheck [by Zsolt Zétényi - Attila Tárkány-Szűcs, from Új Magyarország, I (30 November 1991) 185. pp. 2 - 4]
A Letter to the Editor by Hans-Heinrich Jescheck [excerpts, on the 20th of January, 1994]

THE CZECH LAW ON THE ILLEGALITY OF THE COMMUNIST REGIME

Zákon a protiprávnosti komunistického režimu a odporu proti nemu (9 July 1993)
  Duvodova zpráva [motion No. 376 in original type]
Constitutional Court decision No. 19/93 (21 December 1993) [from original typescript]

APPENDIX. THE MESSAGE OF THE INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS

Expert Opinion to the Hungarian Parliament by M. Cherif Bassiouni [on the 30th of October. 1991)
A Letter to Dr. Zsolt Zétényi by Lord Kirkhill [on the 28th of June. 1993]

---

Preface

In the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that have undertaken to change their political systems in recent years, the natural desire to start life anew could rest exclusively on another desire altogether - namely, on the need to settle the issues of the past Whether explicitly or mutely, the latter can manifest itself in several different forms, ranging from a prevalence in society of the ethos of aversion to acting in any which way, from steering a sober middle course to a radical means of calling to account or even to letting all hell break lose: This apparent freedom of choice may give the impression that the only reasonable and practicable option, that which also entails genuine social goals, is to focus our attention exclusively on our future. After all, if we become wrapped up by our past, we are bound to remain captives of our instinctual selves. Only our grievances or some externally elicited desire have the power to make us bury ourselves in our past. However, both have only negative and destructive results to offer, since they cannot be simultaneously constructive or beneficial in any way.

Meanwhile, the experiences of those regional countries that approach the issue from different angles lead us to conclude that, after all, our choice does make a difference. Our answers to the questions of the past set a course for our approach to the future. This is why the history, traditions, and customs (and of course also the prevailing degree of maneuverability and preconditions) of each country have a direct influence on the extent to. which their peoples identify with these dilemmas and also on the answers they eventually find. People may be prepared to look all sorts of problems in the face in a calm and level-headed manner. They may just as well feel an urge to just wipe these problems under the carpet. And they may also feel inclined to dodge these problems by loosening the reins or fanning passions to a heat. However, since man is caught between past and future, his answer to one set of problems directly determines his answer to another, related set of problems. Le style, c'est l'homme même. But style is also the system itself. And this problem becomes all the more pronounced if we make people conscious of the fact that in the realm of the law, the relationship between past and future is not merely logical or social in nature. If we consider these problems in a legal context, we are bound to realize that our constitutional ideals cannot hold water if they do not simultaneously help us to look our past in the face. Should these ideals turn out to be unfit in helping us transcend the past, our initial enthusiasm would inevitably cool off, our constitutional ideals themselves would lose their moral cohesion and appeal, and would eventually dry out, as it were, democratic pathos and perspective evaporating away.

...

One of the toughest nuts to crack for those attempting to look the past in the eye has been the dilemma over the issue of delivering historical justice. In a strictly legal sense, statutory limitation lies at the core of this problem. Practically speaking, we can identify only one approach to the issue of statutory limitation as prevailing in Hungary today. This approach is the one that bears the seal of approval of the Constitutional Court - the legal body charged with exercising control over the sovereign powers of Parliament. This approval is considered authoritative, and in principle it is irrevocable. Of course, people are free to ask whether the decision at issue fits into the established traditions of constitutionalism in Europe; whether it peremptorily follows or can at least be deduced from the text of our prevailing Constitution; or whether it is theoretically well-founded and buttressed by anything other than the seal of the body itself. But it is to no avail to ask such questions, since they have no power whatsoever to alter the decision's definitive force.

...

Our aim with publishing the documents on the preparations for the German laws on statutory limitation, as well as the Czech bill and its constitutional assessment, is to broaden the scope of this debate, which has not yet started due to the over-politicised approaches, its one-sided publicistic treatment, and also the rejection of this issue by the Hungarian Constitutional Court. We are familiar with the related course of events, and are aware of the relevant political messages. However, since this is essentially a professional issue, the professional debate on the legitimization of dictatorships in a constitutional state, and also on the legitimacy of the state's ability to exempt itself from punishment for crimes committed under the state's auspices, must at one point be carried out. The German example is relevant on account of that country's historical and spiritual proximity to Hungary. At the same time, the arguments in the German debate were not voiced in an essentially heated atmosphere typical of a "period of turncoats," but instead by German experts during debates at the prestigious and for us exemplary Bundestag. These experts are known to be punctilious on the point of their sense of justice (and are noted for their experiences in handling and interpreting cases on the level of their Constitutional Court). In light of the prospects for civil political development in the Czech Republic, the decisions made by the national legislature in Prague and the Constitutional Court in Brno are especially worthy of analysis.

---