The sit-down blockades in the Constitutional Court: The decisions of 1986 and 1995

When the Constitutional Court’s decision was announced in November 1986, the opinion came as something of a shock. The eight judges of the Court’s First Senate were equally divided on most issues, and so the case ended as a 4-4 tie.1 According to the Court’s rule, no statute or other governmental act may be found unconstitutional by an equally divided vote.2 The result, therefore, was that the

protestors lost in most cases, and their convictions remained undisturbed.3