Mauerschützen-Urteile des BGH, BVerfG und EGMR revisited

This study provides an in-depth analysis of rulings in “Mauerschützen” court cases (those which dealt with fatal shootings at the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989) by the FRG’s Federal and Constitutional Courts, and the European Court of Human Rights. The analysis starts with the genesis and validity of the GDR’s border regime, which have so far not been examined by legal scholars in their entirety. This retracting of history is absolutely essential to fully determine the facts, which turn out to be quite different in the cases in question and thus cannot necessarily lead to the same rulings. Against this different context, the analysis does not only contain an inquiry into both the national and international laws that existed at the time of such occurrences, but also into current customary international law, e.g., the Rome Statute. In addition, the analysis involves a further inquiry into the Radbruch Formula, the so-called “basic law” that the Supreme Court tends to apply in such cases.