In the 1980s the
West German Peace
Movement - fearing
that the stationing of
NATO nuclear missiles
in Germany threatened
an imminent nuclear
war in Europe -
engaged in massive
protests, including
sustained civil
disobedience in the
form of sit-down
demonstrations.
Civil Disobedience and the German Courts traces
the historical and philosophical background
of this movement and follows a group of
demonstrators through their trials in the German
criminal courts up to the German Constitutional
Court - in which their fate was determined in
two important constitutional cases. In this
context, the volume also analyzes the German
Constitutional Court, as a crucial institution of
government, in comparative perspective.
The book is the first full-length English
language treatment of these events and
constitutional decisions, and it also places the
decisions at an important turning-point in
German constitutional history.