Norman Paech | |
|---|---|
 Paech in 2010 | |
| Member of theBundestag forHamburg | |
| In office 2002–2009 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1938-04-12)12 April 1938 (age 87) Bremerhaven,Bremen, Germany |
| Political party | The Left |
| Other political affiliations | SPD (1969–2001) |
Norman Paech (born 12 April 1938) is a retired German professor and member of the political partyThe Left.
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After taking hisAbitur exam inHamburg, Paech studied history and law at theUniversity of Tübingen, as well as inMunich andParis. From 1959 he studied law inHamburg, finishing in 1962 with the firststate exam. He then worked as a researcher at theUniversity of Hamburg. In 1965, he obtained a doctorate degree for his thesisTarifautonomie und staatliche Intervention – Ein Beitrag zum Problem der Zwangsschlichtung von Arbeitsstreitigkeiten ("Collective bargaining and state intervention – A contribution to the problem of compulsory arbitration of labor disputes"). In 1967, he passed the second state exam in law.
Afterpostgraduate studies at theGerman Development Institute in Berlin, he joined theFederal Ministry of Economic Cooperation in 1968 as a research assistant. In 1972, he joined the research centre of theFederation of German Scientists in Hamburg as a research associate. In 1974, he began teaching political science at the Faculty of Law II at theUniversity of Hamburg.
In 1982, he became a professor ofpublic law at theHochschule of Economics and Politics (HWP; since 2005 known as theHamburg University of Economics and Politics [de]). Paech has beenprofessor emeritus since 2005. From 1976 to 1985, he was chairman of the Association of Democratic lawyers and from 1985 to 1993 was chief editor of the legal-political quarterlyDemocracy and Law. After theYugoslav Wars, he became a critic of the legal proceedings of theInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; in particular, he criticized the proceedings against former Serbian PresidentSlobodan Milošević.
Paech is a member of theATTAC scientific advisory board.[1][2]
Paech became a member of theSPD in 1969 and, from 1972 to 1973, belonged to the state executive board of theYoung Socialists in Hamburg. He resigned from the SPD in 2001, after the party's Red-Green coalition passed a resolution to deploy theBundeswehr in Afghanistan.[3]
In 2000, following a ruling by theÁreios Págos (Supreme Court of Greece), Paech said that Germany had to compensate the victims of Nazi war crimes in Greece. One event noted at the time, for which German presidentJohannes Rau laid a memorial wreath, was theMassacre of Kalavryta. Paech had also represented survivors and relatives of theDistomo massacre, saying in 2000, "It is not only the money that the victims are concerned about, but also the German side's acknowledgement of its responsibility for the crimes committed. The SS executioners, who executed 218 villagers (of Distomo) in retaliation against an attack by Greek guerrillas, still celebrate each year in Marktheinfeld (a town in Bavaria) their adventures in Greece and have still not given account for their deeds...."[4]
Paech was also well known for his studies on the Kurdish issue – championing theKurdish people's right to self-determination andsecession from Turkey.[4]
Paech was a member of the 16th GermanBundestag (2005–2009), having been elected via the open candidate list ofDie Linkspartei.PDS in the federal state of Hamburg. He became an official member of this party in 2007 and was its spokesman on foreign affairs and representative in theFederal Constitutional Court proceedings against thePanavia Tornado missions in Afghanistan.[citation needed]
According to journalist Jan-Philipp Hein, Paech frequently puts Israel near state terrorism and racism, while regarding anti-Israeli terrorism as mere resistance.[5] Paech, however, denied the article's claims of him belittling Palestinian violence.[6]
Paech was among eleven PDS MPs who abstained from voting on the anti-semitism declaration, which was made on the occasion of the 70thKristallnacht anniversary. Their actions drew criticism from the Union andGreen Bundestag fractions. The eleven MPs explained that, while the concerns are justified, the declaration would discredit any criticism on American and Israeli war policies as an act of anti-semitism.[7][8]
Together withInge Höger andAnnette Groth, Paech accompanied theinternational relief convoy to the Gaza Strip in May 2010. Afterthe raid on the convoy, he stated:
The Israeli government justifies the raid because they were attacked. This is absolutely not the case. This was not an act of self-defence... We had not prepared in any way to fight. We didn't even consider it. No violence, no resistance – because we knew very well that we would have absolutely no chance against soldiers like this. This was an attack in international waters on a peaceful mission... This was a clear act of piracy.
| This section of abiography of a living persondoes notinclude anyreferences or sources. Please help by addingreliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourcedmust be removed immediately. Find sources: "Norman Paech" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
