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36-419: The German term Landsgemeinde itself is attested from at least the 16th century, in the 1561 dictionary of Pictorius . It is a compound from Land "land, canton; rural canton" and Gemeinde "community, commune". Eligible citizens of the canton or district meet on a certain day in the open air to decide on specific issues. Voting is accomplished by raising one's hand in favor of a motion. Historically,

72-665: A certain canton the subject of a sentence (see, for example, the Federal Charter of 1291 ), in order to emphasize that the decision was made by the community ( direct democracy ) rather than by a political elite. In the Old Swiss Confederacy , the existence of a Landsgemeinde was the defining feature of the rural cantons ( Länderorte , as opposed to the city-cantons). These Cantons were: Uri , Schwyz , Unterwalden (the forest-cantons ), Glarus and Appenzell and Zug . Zug took an intermediate position, as it

108-539: Is taken by majority rule , and in case of incertitude, the Landammann estimates on which side the majority falls with the help of his colleagues from the communal council. The duration of the Landsgemeinde varies significantly between the two cantons that still convene it. In Glarus , because of the high level of deliberation and possibility for citizens to propose an amendment of an existing law article or

144-713: Is the Landsgemeinde used to elect the parliament. The Landsgemeinde assembly is a tradition with continuity back to the later Middle Ages, first recorded in the context of the formation of the Old Swiss Confederacy . The tradition ultimately continues the Germanic thing , although not uninterruptedly, as the Alamanni had lost their independence to the Frankish Empire in the 8th century but re-emerging in territories with imperial immediacy since

180-550: The Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana in 1768. The Blutbanner ("blood banner") or Blutfahne ("blood flag") was a solid red flag. It was presented to feudal lords as a symbol of their power of high jurisdiction ( Blutgerichtsbarkeit ) together with the heraldic banner of the fief. Some feudal houses adopted a red field symbolic of the blood banner into their coat of arms, the so-called Regalienfeld . The Talschaft ( forest canton ) of Schwyz used

216-457: The Landsgemeinde can be used to implement laws or modify the cantonal constitution. In Appenzell Innerrhoden , the Landsgemeinde can also cover governmental issues, while in Glarus tax laws are regulated by Landsgemeinde decision and alternative legislative counterproposals ('constructive referendums') can be formulated by the citizens and voted on this occasion. In neither of the two cantons

252-466: The Landsgemeinde system in the vicinity of " ochlocracy " or " tyranny of the majority ". Blum and Köhler (2006) suggested there might only be a "limited level of preliminary debate" possible leading to a failure to consider minority opinions. The open ballot system ostensibly fails to assure the secrecy of the vote . Switzerland has explicitly introduced an exception to article 25 of its International Pact on Civil and Political Rights in order to protect

288-617: The Landsgemeinde , avoiding complying with the letter of article 21.3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights protecting the secrecy of the vote. Switzerland has never ratified the first convention protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights for a similar reason. Under such conditions, social control and other crowd manipulation processes might then prevent citizens from voting according to their own preferences and mislead rational decisions. On

324-539: The Zenden or districts of Valais ), but also as Landsgemeinde in Toggenburg and in parts of Grisons . At the Landsgemeinde , citizens of a district or canton assemble annually in a public space under open sky to vote on a series of ballot questions . Depending on the canton, they raise their hand or voter identification card to either accept or reject the motion, which constitutes a non-secret ballot . Decision

360-574: The civic duty of the concerned individuals, it is unclear if the Landsgemeinde offers better inclusivity and fosters a higher level of participation than the more traditional secret-ballot voting methods. Paul Lucardie (2014) notes for example that: "Evidence suggests that attendance at assemblies in Appenzell and Glarus, as well as most town meetings in Vermont and possibly also in ancient Athens, has always been limited to roughly twenty per cent of

396-608: The ius gladii ("right of the sword"). Although the terms high and low suggest a strict subordination, this was not quite the case; a case could often be brought in any of several courts, with the principle of "prevention" (in the etymological sense of Latin praevenire , "to come before") granting jurisdiction to the court in which the case was first filed or otherwise brought. As a rule, each court administered justice in general (criminal cases were generally not separate from civil actions and other types of justice, while certain matters were separated such as canon law ), as long as

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432-754: The king . From the 13th century, it was transferred to the king's vassals along with their fiefs. The first codification of capital punishment was the Halsgerichtsordnung passed by Maximilian I in 1499, followed in 1507 by the Constitutio Criminalis Bambergensis . Both codes formed the basis of the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina (CCC), passed in 1532 under Charles V . In the Habsburg monarchy , all regional codes were superseded by

468-636: The "unforced force of the better argument" (Habermas, 1992). Josua Maaler Josua Maaler (also Maler, Mahler , Latinized Pictorius ; 1529–1599) was a Swiss pastor and lexicographer. He was the author of the first dictionary which focused exclusively on the German language , published in Zürich as Die Teütsch Spraach in 1561. Maaler followed the Dictionarium Latinogermanicum by Petrus Dasypodius (1536) in giving

504-447: The 13th century. The first Landsgemeinde proper is attested for Uri in 1231; however, these early assemblies grew seamlessly out of the older institution of blood courts (assemblies with the purpose of dispensing judgement on criminal offenses, see high justice ). The Middle Latin texts when recording a Landsgemeinde usually express this by making universitas "the universality", or communitas hominum "the community of men" of

540-519: The German lemmas alphabetically, as opposed to the earlier Dictionarium Latino-Germanicum by Johannes Fries , which gave German glosses on Latin lemmas. Blood court High, middle and low justices are notions dating from Western feudalism to indicate descending degrees of judicial power to administer justice by the maximal punishment the holders could inflict upon their subjects and other dependents. The scale of punishment generally matched

576-522: The Swiss rural cantons since the late Middle Ages, while in the city-cantons such as Lucerne , Schaffhausen , or Bern , a general assembly of all citizens was never established. Similar assemblies in dependent territories were known under terms such as Talgemeinde (for Talschaften , used in Ursern , Hasli , Obersimmental ), Teding ( Engelberg ), Parlamento ( Leventina ), and Zendgemeinden (for

612-508: The abolition of this institution, and Glarus are the only remaining cantons to use this form of direct democracy. Beside the 1991 vote of Appenzell Innerrhoden , the usage of the Landsgemeinde has since then never been questioned in these two cantons, which suggests that citizens are attached to their institution. Moreover, turnout rates remained constant in the last 50 years both in Appenzell Innerrhoden and in Glarus . In

648-520: The blood banner as a war flag from ca. 1240, and was later incorporated into the flag of Schwyz and the flag of Switzerland . Often it is proudly displayed, in the form of relevant status symbols. Thus permanent gallows are often erected in prominent public places; the very word for them in French, potence , is derived from the Latin "potentia" meaning "power". High justice is held by all states and

684-442: The citizenry." Moreover, the inclusion of women was until recently one of the main concerns for the inclusivity of the Landsgemeinde . Up to 1991, women were not allowed in the Landsgemeinde in the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden , which was the last canton of Switzerland to grant women the right to vote, making it an exceptionally late introduction of women's suffrage for a European country. There have been suggestions placing

720-536: The highest vassals in the European type of feudal society, but may also be acquired by other authorities as part of a high degree of legal autonomy, such as certain cities; which in time often obtained other high privileges originally reserved for high nobility and sometimes high clergy. Other such privileges could include a seat in a diet or a similar feudal representative assembly, before the third estate as such even aspired to such "parliamentary" representation, or

756-507: The introduction of a new one, the Landsgemeinde lasts between 2 and 4.5 hours on average. In Appenzell Innerrhoden on the other hand, deliberation is limited, thus the Landsgemeinden usually end after 1 to 2.5 hours. Symptomatic of the federalist system of Switzerland, the Landsgemeinde differs in the scope of its usage from canton to canton. The legislative power is concerned both in Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus , where

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792-502: The latter canton a participation record of 50% was even recorded in 2001. Glarus recently introduced measures to encourage participation at the Landsgemeinde . In 2007, participation was extended to citizens aged 16 and older, which constitutes an exception in Switzerland. Likewise, each year on the day of the Landsgemeinde , participants can use all public transports of the canton for free. In Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus ,

828-553: The matter was not reserved for a higher court or by virtue of some privilegium fori (e.g., of clerics to be judged in canon courts by other clergy, sometimes under ecclesiastical law, the origin of the English common-law concept— benefit of clergy ). In addition to civil and criminal trials, the notion of justice also included voluntary justice , which is really the official recording of deeds (unilateral or bilateral) such as marital agreements, wills, grants, etc. A right of appeal

864-476: The modernization of the institution, for example through the potential introduction of electronic vote-counting systems is debated, but no political party is opposed to the maintenance of the Landsgemeinden . Besides the cantonal assemblies, the Swiss Confederation is supporting various projects inspired by the Landsgemeinden and built on the same ideas. For instance, the 4th Cyber-Landsgemeinde

900-471: The only proof of citizenship necessary for men to enter the voting area was to show their ceremonial sword or Swiss military sidearm (bayonet); this gave proof that they were a freeman allowed to bear arms and to vote. While voting cards have been introduced, in Appenzell presenting a sidearm is still a valid alternative to the voting card for men. The Landsgemeinde has been the sovereign institution of

936-435: The other hand, according to the ancient Greek tradition of parrhesia , literally "saying everything", a public assembly could teach individuals to express their opinions with frankness and collective responsibility. Studies of outcomes of the Landsgemeinde in various administrative divisions (Schaub 2012, Gerber & Mueller 2014) seem to suggest that proper preliminary deliberation can help reach better decisions defined by

972-421: The pillars of the direct democratic core of the Swiss political structure. Even if its use has sharply decreased in the past century, it is still considered as a characteristic institution of the Swiss democracy and is generally considered as a participative and inclusive democratic practice. However, while participation is according to the cantonal constitutions not only encouraged but also required as part of

1008-522: The right of justice is held by many "unique" courts, relatively strong states make it a pillar of their absolutist (re)emergence to establish numerous courts to administer justice in their name in different territorial circumscriptions, such as the royal (high) sheriffs in England, or to impose an appeal (at least unifying the law as such) to a royal court, as to the various French provincial parlements . High justice, also known as ius gladii ("right of

1044-478: The right to mint coins. These privileges indicating its so-called liberty was an "equal" enclave in the territorial jurisdiction of the neighboring feudal (temporal or ecclesiastical) Lord, sometimes even extending rather like a polis in Antiquity. Not every Vogt held high justice. Up to the 18th century, for example, the blood court of much of what is now the canton of Zürich lay with Kyburg , even in

1080-596: The scale of spectacle (e.g. a public hanging = high justice), so that in France, Paul Friedland argues: "The degree of spectacle [was] originally the basis for a distinction between high and low justice", with an intervening level of 'middle justice', characterised by limited or modest spectatorship, added around the end of the fourteenth century. Low justice regards the level of day-to-day civil actions, including voluntary justice, minor pleas , and petty offences generally settled by fines or light corporal punishment . It

1116-407: The sword") or in German as Blutgerichtsbarkeit , Blutgericht (lit. "blood justice", "blood-court"; sometimes also Halsgericht , lit. "neck-justice", or peinliches Gericht ) is the highest penal authority, including capital punishment , as held by a sovereign—the sword of justice and hand of justice are regalia that symbolize it. In the early Holy Roman Empire , high justice was reserved to

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1152-468: The territory ruled by the counts of Greifensee . The self-administration of the blood court was an important factor of Imperial immediacy . 'High justice' and 'low justice' are also terms used in reference to justice in China, although from different premises. Delia Lin argues that 'the essence of high justice' in China rests on foundations of a presumed 'moral supremacy and legitimacy of the ruling party as

1188-711: Was a city-canton which due to the existence of a Landsgemeinde was also counted under the rural cantons. With the formation of Switzerland as a federal state , the formerly sovereign cantonal assemblies became subject to federal law, and the Landsgemeinden came to be seen as anachronisms. The usage of the Landsgemeinde was progressively abandoned at the cantonal level through the 19th and 20th century. Zug and Schwyz jettisoned it in 1848, followed by Uri in 1928. Nidwalden in 1996, Appenzell Ausserrhoden in 1997 and Obwalden in 1998 abolished their cantonal Landsgemeinde by secret ballot votes. Currently, Appenzell Innerrhoden , which rejected in 1991 by Landsgemeinde

1224-419: Was held by many lesser authorities, including many lords of the manor , who sat in justice over the serfs , unfree tenants , and freeholders on their land. Middle justice would involve full civil and criminal jurisdiction , except for capital crimes , and notably excluding the right to pass the death penalty , torture and severe corporal punishment, which was reserved to authorities holding high justice, or

1260-683: Was not automatically available, only when explicitly established, and if so not always to a court of the superior political level or a higher degree of the trio. In fact, feudal justice was a labyrinth of specific customs and rules in nearly endless variation, not governed by any clear legal logic, and subject to significant historical evolution in time. However, the largely customary law tended by nature to be quite conservative. In judicial matters—as in all spheres of life—feudal society did not see uniformity as either possible or necessarily desirable, each town and region has its customs and ways of doing things, and resented attempts to interfere with them. While

1296-477: Was organised on April 6, 2016 in Bern , with the aim to use democratic deliberation to foster reflections and find solutions related to the topic of cyber-security. Likewise, the urban municipality of Kloten implemented in 2012 a version of the Landsgemeinde to deliberate on the allocation of funds to local projects, which enabled for example the construction of a new Kindergarten. The Landsgemeinde forms one of

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