NCJ Number
85663
Journal
Kriminologisches Journal Volume: 13 Issue: 2 Dated: (1981) Pages: 104-118
Date Published
1981
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This German article sees a need for the reinstitution of the ancient right of sanctuary in the near future and argues for its logical justification in the 'assensus model' of society, which preceded and has never been entirely supplanted by the consensus model.
Abstract
A form of the right of sanctuary remains extant in modern international law providing political asylum. With increasingly binding economic interdependence among nations (e.g., Common Market) the concepts of sovereignty and political borders are being weakened, thereby threatening the right to political asylum in a 'foreign' country. Therefore, domestic sanctuaries for the persecuted should be revived. Sanctuary is logically impossible, however, under a social order dominated by the consensus model, which admits the single, absolute right of the law and subordinates all citizens equally for their common protection. Far from being the only model of the social contract, the consensus model has only emerged in the industrialized period (1800 on) and applies only to criminal justice. Abused, it may become the dissensus model by which might becomes right. Vestiges of the superceded assensus model remain in civil law where multiple views of what is right are permitted. Under this model, domestic sanctuary is a possible institution, which may lead the citizenry back to assuming criminal justice responsibilities, as it once did and continues to do in certain subcultures. Footnotes are provided.