Misplaced Pages

#339660

36-442: The Bezirk Dresden was a district ( Bezirk ) of East Germany that lasted from 1952 to 1990. Dresden would be reabsorbed back into Saxony after the reunification of Germany . The administrative seat and the main town was Dresden . The district was established, with the other 13, on 25 July 1952, substituting the old German states . After 3 October 1990 it was disestablished upon German reunification , becoming again part of

72-458: A 15th district, though it retained a special status until the adoption of the 1968 Constitution formally designated it as Bezirk Berlin . The Bezirke (with the exception of East Berlin, which consisted of a single municipality) were subdivided into rural districts ( Landkreise ) and urban districts ( Stadtkreise ): From north to south, the Bezirke were: *) The Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt

108-404: A certain state of facts until the opposite is proved, such as the presumption of legitimacy . The term legal fiction is sometimes used in a pejorative way. Jeremy Bentham was a famous historical critic of legal fictions. Proponents of legal fictions, particularly of their use historically, identify legal fictions as " scaffolding around a building under construction ". Child adoption

144-518: A lawsuit is a type of legal fiction. The fiction of Doe and Roe being the guardians of undisclosed parties who wish to bring suit, or the names of parties unknown, remains in some jurisdictions although not in England . The fiction about Doe being left homeless by Roe, used often in property law, however, has been abolished in every common law jurisdiction. The common law had a procedure whereby title to land could be put in direct issue, called

180-753: A legal fiction extended the jurisdiction of the Court of the Exchequer to all types of cases involving debt . The Exchequer had a much lighter caseload than the King's Bench and other courts in England. Litigants would commence an action in the Exchequer Court by pleading that they owed money to the King, which they could not pay because their debtor had in turn wrongfully withheld payment to them. The debt owed to

216-578: A parent dies alongside a child, who has a child of his/her own, the rule of the elder predeceasing the child will allow the grandchild (typically) to inherit both, the parent directly and grandparent indirectly, with the parent instantaneously inheriting and then bequeathing. The doctrine of survival, although still existing in England, has been abolished in many U.S. states by the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act . The use of John Doe or Jane Roe to identify an undisclosed party in

252-414: A procedure to determine title via trial by jury . This is the origin of the names John Doe and Richard Roe for anonymous parties. The fiction of Doe, Roe, and the leases was not challenged by the parties unless they wished to stake their life on a trial by combat. Wager of battle fell into disuse by the end of the thirteenth century though it was not abolished in England until 1819. In cases where

288-696: A state in its own right. East Germany claimed East Berlin as its capital, a status recognised by virtually all Eastern Bloc countries. However, the Western Allies (the US , UK , and France ) never formally acknowledged the authority of the East German government to govern East Berlin; the official Allied protocol recognised only the authority of the Soviet Union in East Berlin in accordance with

324-439: Is a legal fiction in that the adoptive parents become the legal parents, notwithstanding the lack of a biological relationship. Once an order or judgment of adoption is entered, the biological parents become legal strangers to the child, legally no longer related nor with any rights related to the child. Conversely, the adoptive parents are legally considered to be parents of the adopted child. A new birth certificate reflecting this

360-409: Is issued, which is a legal fiction. If two or more people die within a period of time or in a manner that renders it impossible to tell the order in which they died, the older of the two is considered to have died first. This is in order to safeguard the operation of certain general legal rules, e.g. in inheritance law , where the younger person will inherit the older, hence being able to pass on. If

396-415: Is turned down because the joint rule "... is a legal fiction, and legal fictions are solemn things." In the novel Lud-in-the-Mist (1926) by Hope Mirrlees , the concept of the legal fiction as a secular substitute for spiritual mysteries and magical illusions is a central theme. Legal fictions in the novel include referring to fairy fruit, mention of which is taboo, as woven silk fabric in order to allow

SECTION 10

#1732772257340

432-605: The Mabo case, where the High Court of Australia rejected previous authorities that held that Indigenous Australians were too "low in the scale of social organization" at the time of British settlement to be capable of holding title to land. William Blackstone defended legal fictions, observing that legislation is never free from the iron law of unintended consequences . Using the metaphor of an ancient castle , Blackstone opined: We inherit an old Gothic castle, erected in

468-660: The Bezirkstage (district assemblies) in each Land and in 1958 directly by the Bezirkstage . However, on 8 December 1958, the Länderkammer and Länder were formally dissolved with no objections being raised by the Länderkammer . Due to its special status, East Berlin was originally not counted as a Bezirk . In 1961, after the construction of the Berlin Wall , East Berlin came to be recognised in GDR administration as

504-419: The " writ of right". The defendant could insist on trial by "wager of battle", that is trial by combat , a judicially sanctioned duel . To avoid the plaintiff staking life and limb, a tale was told in the pleadings about how one John Doe leased land from the plaintiff but was ousted by Richard Roe, who claimed a contrary lease from the defendant . Such events would lead to the "mixed action in ejectment ",

540-632: The Bill allowed it to take cases traditionally in the remit of other common law courts by claiming that the defendant had committed trespass in Middlesex. Once the defendant was in custody, the trespass complaint would be quietly dropped and other complaints (such as debt or detinue) would be substituted. In 1623, a rule was declared that Members of Parliament were given a trust to represent their constituencies and, therefore, were not at liberty to resign. However, an MP who accepted an "office of profit" from

576-705: The Crown (including appointment as a minister) was obliged to leave the House and seek re-election, because it was thought their independence might be compromised if they were in the monarch's pay. The device was invented that the MP who wished to quit applied to the Crown for the post of " Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds " or " Steward of the Manor of Northstead " with no duties or income, but legally an office of profit in

612-721: The German Democratic Republic (commonly referred to as East Germany ) were constituted in two different forms during the country's history. The GDR first retained the traditional German division into federated states called Länder , but in 1952 they were replaced with districts called Bezirke . Immediately before German reunification in 1990, the Länder were restored, but they were not effectively reconstituted until after reunification had completed. In May 1945, following its defeat in World War II , Germany

648-531: The King became a legal fiction in that the original debtor was not entitled to controvert this allegation in order to oust the Exchequer from jurisdiction. The Bill of Middlesex was a legal fiction used by the Court of King's Bench to gain jurisdiction over cases traditionally in the remit of the Court of Common Pleas . Hinging on the King's Bench's retaining criminal jurisdiction over the county of Middlesex ,

684-409: The authority to order the recall of Parliament. Instead, the legal fiction was maintained that Parliament had never been prorogued; any references to prorogation were expunged from the record, and Parliament was instead recorded as being adjourned , enabling it to reassemble the next day. Some legal fictions have been invalidated due to increased historical knowledge and changes in social norms, as in

720-399: The borders of the Länder and each named after their capitals, from north to south: Rostock , Neubrandenburg , Schwerin , Potsdam , Frankfurt (Oder) , Magdeburg , Cottbus , Halle , Leipzig , Erfurt , Dresden , Karl-Marx-Stadt (named Chemnitz until 1953), Gera and Suhl . The Länderkammer also remained in existence and its members were elected in 1954 by combined sessions of

756-506: The centuries have imparted a degree of stability both to the institution of legal fictions and to specific legal fictions (such as adoptions and corporate personhood ) that have been repeatedly invoked in judicial precedents. While judiciaries retain discretion in the use of legal fictions, some general propositions regarding the appropriateness of using legal fictions might be expressed as follows: Some legal fictions are codified in statutory or regulatory law. A person having ordinary skill in

SECTION 20

#1732772257340

792-569: The court must determine whether a standard has been reached, such as whether a defendant has been negligent , the court frequently uses the legal fiction of the " reasonable man ". This is known as the " objective test ", and is far more common than the "subjective test" where the court seeks the viewpoint of the parties (or "subjects"). Sometimes, the court may apply a "mixed test", as in the House of Lords' decision in DPP v Camplin 1978. In England ,

828-413: The days of chivalry , but fitted up for a modern inhabitant. The moated ramparts , the embattled towers, and the trophied halls, are magnificent and venerable, but useless. The interior apartments, now converted into rooms of convenience, are cheerful and commodious, though their approaches are winding and difficult. Henry Maine , on the other hand, argued that legal fictions seem an ornate outgrowth of

864-766: The father's will determining Peter's legal guardian . Later in the novel a witness to the accident declares seeing the mother floundering some time after the father has disappeared, and so the legal fiction is overturned and the mother's will is followed, providing Peter with a new legal guardian. Wells was in error as to the English law, which actually presumes that the older person died first. In Act II, Scene 1 of Gilbert and Sullivan 's The Gondoliers , Giuseppe Palmieri (who serves jointly with his brother Marco as King of Barataria) requests that he and his brother be recognized individually, that they might receive individual portions of food as they have two independent appetites. He

900-610: The five original Länder . Legally, it was these Länder that then acceded to the Federal Republic of Germany . In reality, the restored Länder did not fully reconstitute themselves until after reunification. On 14 October 1990, elections to the Landtage (state parliaments) were held in the five new states, initiating the formation of state governments. Since changes to the boundaries of municipal districts were not reversed, and also due to considerations of expediency,

936-522: The four powers divided into four sectors. A united German state government existed in the city until it broke apart in 1948. After 1949, both West Berlin and East Berlin (officially only called Berlin) were in effect incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, respectively, despite not legally being part of these countries. In the Soviet occupation zone , five Länder were established which roughly corresponded to

972-445: The law that ought to be removed by legislation . Jeremy Bentham sharply criticised the notion of legal fictions, saying that "fictions are to law what fraud is to trade." In the novel Joan and Peter (1918) by H. G. Wells , Peter's parents die in a sailing accident. As it is not known which parent dies first, a legal fiction is applied maintaining that the husband, being a man and therefore stronger, lived longer which results in

1008-440: The law to regulate it; and declaring members of the country's Senate "dead in the eyes of the law" in order to remove them from office, since the senators serve for life. Legal fictions derive their legitimacy from tradition and precedent, rather than formal standing as a source of law. Historically, many legal fictions were created as ad hoc remedies forged to meet a harsh or an unforeseen situation. Conventions and practices over

1044-566: The legislative branch through the Länderkammer (Chamber of States), which was elected by the Landtage (state parliaments). However, the Länder were not constituting entities forming a federal republic (as in West Germany) but rather decentralised administrative entities of a quasi- unitary state . As a nod to the legal fiction that East Berlin was still occupied territory, it was counted neither as part of Brandenburg, nor as

1080-565: The monarch's gift. The first MP to avail themself of the Chiltern Hundreds to leave Parliament was John Pitt in 1751. The requirement for ministerial re-election has been abolished, but the "Chiltern Hundreds" mechanism remains to enable MPs to resign. The 2019 UK prorogation controversy was resolved through the use of legal fiction. Although the United Kingdom Supreme Court found that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's prorogation of parliament had been unlawful, it lacked

1116-547: The occupation status of Berlin as a whole. On 23 July 1952, a law combined the GDR's municipal districts ( Kreise ) into 14 regional districts ( Bezirke ), and subsequently, on 25 July 1952, the state governments transferred their administrative tasks to the new regional districts. With this law, the Länder were in effect dissolved, and the GDR had become a highly centralized state. While they formally remained in existence, they no longer had any political or administrative functions. The Bezirke were drawn without regard to

Bezirk Dresden - Misplaced Pages Continue

1152-653: The preexisting states and provinces. (The territories east of the Oder–Neisse line had been transferred from the Soviet occupation zone to the Polish authorities as agreed upon at the Potsdam Conference .) The five states were: In 1949, the Soviet occupation zone was transformed into the German Democratic Republic. The five Länder (and East Berlin , though the latter only with consultative votes) participated in

1188-626: The state of Saxony . The Bezirk Dresden was the easternmost Bezirk of East Germany. It, bordered on the 'Bezirke' of Cottbus , Leipzig and Karl-Marx-Stadt , as well as on Czechoslovakia and Poland . It was broadly similar in area to the later Direktionsbezirk Dresden , which functioned from 1990 to 2012. The Bezirk was divided into 17 Kreise : 2 urban districts ( Stadtkreise ) and 15 rural districts ( Landkreise ): [REDACTED] Media related to Dresden District (GDR) at Wikimedia Commons Administrative divisions of East Germany#Division into Bezirke The administrative divisions of

1224-416: The territorial make-up of the restored Länder differed somewhat from the borders before 1952. Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt initially retained the rural and urban districts as administrative entities ( Regierungsbezirke ). Saxony-Anhalt later abolished them in 2003, while Saxony transformed them into directorates in 2008. Legal fiction Legal fictions are different from legal presumptions which assume

1260-475: Was named Bezirk Chemnitz for a short period at both the beginning and end of the republic, corresponding with the renaming and reversal of the city Chemnitz . Between 10 May 1953 and 30 May 1990, both the city and Bezirk were named Karl-Marx-Stadt . **) East Berlin was not officially a Bezirk , but from 1961 was provided with the function of one. On 23 August 1990 — just over a month before German reunification on 3 October — East Germany reconstituted

1296-512: Was occupied by the United States , Britain , France and the Soviet Union . All four occupation powers reorganised the territories by recreating the Länder (states), the constituting parts of federal Germany. The state of Prussia , whose provinces extended to all four zones and covered two thirds of Germany, was abolished in 1947. Special conditions were assigned to Berlin , which

#339660