Constitutional Dispute Hardship Commission: GvW Graf von Westphalen successfully represents the Hamburg citizens against the action by the AfD

The constitutional dispute initiated by the AfD faction against the rejection of the members for Hardship Commission proposed by the AfD was not admissible. The Hamburg Constitutional Court decided this in a judgment dated 19 July 2016 (HVerfG 9/15). GvW Graf von Westphalen represented the respondent, the citizens of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, in these proceedings.
 
The Hardship Commission is responsible for examining visas of foreigners who are required to leave the country in the case of urgent humanitarian or personal reasons when these individuals do not have any right to become a resident under applicable law. If the Commission finds that there is a hardship case, the Commission can file a hardship request with the top state authorities.

The members of the Hardship Commission are elected from among the citizens. The citizens rejected candidates nominated by the AfD faction in several votes. Only one representative was elected by the citizens as a vice-member. The AfD faction initiated the constitutional proceedings because their candidates were not elected.
 
The judges in the Hamburg Constitutional Court simply held in their judgment that there was no standing to file the application and that the application for relief was inadmissible. The Hardship Commission installed in Hamburg was held not to be a parliamentary body and, thus, also not part of a constitutional body. The court held that although the members of the Hardship Commission are elected by the citizens in a first step, they must subsequently still be appointed by the Senate, i.e. an executive body. Therefore, these court proceedings were held not to constitute a dispute under constitutional law for which the Hamburg Constitutional Court has jurisdiction. Instead, the court held that the administrative courts has jurisdiction over such a dispute.

The GvW partner Dr. Ronald Steiling (commercial administrative law and constitutional law) advised the Hamburg citizens. The firm most recently provided services to the citizens in the introduction of the so-called Hamburg Referendum.