Germany constitutional court rules pre-Iraq war flight missions unconstitutional

News

Germany constitutional court rules pre-Iraq war flight missions unconstitutional

May 8, 2008 01:14:00 pm

[JURIST] Germany's Federal Constitutional Court [official website, in German] Wednesday ruled [judgment, in German; press release, in German] that German surveillance flights over Turkey conducted in 2003 during the lead-up to the Iraq War were unconstitutional. The court held that the flights equated to "armed deployment," and thus needed to first be approved by the German Bundestag [official website], the lower house of the German parliament. Former Chancellor Gherhard Schroeder's government had said that the flights were a routine NATO operation which did not require parliamentary approval.

The Bundestag has granted approval for recent German military missions around the world, including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and the Horn of Africa. Germany has also assisted in training Iraqi security forces, but not on Iraqi soil. Deutsche Welle has more. Xinhua has additional coverage.

Georgia became first US state to ban lynching

On December 20, 1893, Georgia became the first state in the Union to pass a law against lynching, making the act punishable by four years in prison. The statute was not particularly effective—read the text of the 1899 pamphlet Lynch Law in Georgia by anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett.

UN Drug Trafficking Convention signed

On December 20, 1988, the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances was signed in Vienna, Austria. The treaty provides mechanisms for international coordination in preventing the manufacture and distribution of drugs worldwide. Over 170 countries have signed the treaty to date.