Ideology and Criminal Law by Stephen Skinner

Author:Stephen Skinner
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-09-05T00:00:00+00:00

Statutory Measures of the Nazi Authorities

The administration of justice was under the sphere of influence of the Ministry of Justice. The post as minister of justice was given to Sverre Riisnæs, a young and successful state prosecutor, who joined the Nasjonal Samling in June 1940. Riisnæs showed himself as a hard-working and ideologically minded national socialist.

One of the first measures of the newly established Nasjonal Samling Minister of Justice was an attempt to control the composition of the courts. To this purpose several decrees were enacted. The term for the appointment of lay members of the courts and jury members was due to expire by the end of 1940. The Minister issued a decree whereby he gave himself the power to extend the terms on an individual basis, and also to appoint new persons to the list of members. The administration also issued a decree lowering the retirement age for civil servants, including judges, from 70 to 65. The decree empowered the Minister to extend the age of retirement of civil servants, including judges, beyond 65 on an individual basis. These rules gave the Minister the possibility to influence the composition of the courts and to secure judges who were loyal to the regime.

The decrees led to a conflict with the Supreme Court, which regarded them as attacks on the independence of the judiciary. The judges wrote a letter in which they declared that the decrees exceeded what the occupier was entitled to do under international law and that they therefore must be regarded as being without legal substance. At this point it was clear that there was no independent legal basis for the orders issued by the commissioners, and that they therefore must be regarded as taking their legality from the German powers. The extent of these, and the right of Norwegian national courts to decide on this issue, was the core of the conflict. The Court also declared that it regarded itself competent to exercise judicial review under Norwegian law, and that this also extended to measures issued by the occupying authorities under international law. This resulted in a sharp letter from the German Reichskommissar, in which he stated that national Norwegian courts were in no position to review the legality of measures taken under the order of the occupying authorities. The Minister refused to revoke the decrees. As a result of this the Supreme Court justices collectively resigned their offices on 12 December 1940.28 Riisnæs recruited new justices for the Court among judges, lawyers and civil servants sympathetic to the regime, and they were appointed with the authority of the Reichskommissar. This court functioned as the Supreme Court for the duration of the occupation.

The next measure was the decree of 8 November establishing the People’s Court (Volksgerichtshof). This decree of the Minister of Justice was based on a decree by the Reichskommissar of 25 October, ordering that a special court would be established to deal with offences against the decrees prohibiting opposition and political activity. The People’s Court was composed of three judges and in most cases two lay members.

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