Der Brokdorf-Beschluss des Bundesverfassungsgerichts 1985

Demonstrations over the building of the Brokdorf nuclear power plant preceded the Federal Constitutional Court's decision of May 14th, 1985 on the banning and legitimacy of demonstrations and brought together the intractable conflicts of 1980, setting them against the limits of the right to demonstrate. Liberal and constitutional democracy were negotiated anew in order to take into account the transition in society and the demand for co-determination. Following the student movement and the break -up of the new social movements, the time had come to reform the right to gather. The legislative had not set itself this task and, as a result, the politically- and environmentally-motivated mass gatherings of the 1970s led to sudden clashes between these new forms of protest and law enforcement behavior patterns of the time. This collection examines the circumstances surrounding this transition from historical, legal and cultural anthropological perspectives and explains the nature of the constitutional decree.