One of the first is the British India Act Number 30, enacted in 1836, which, among other things, provides:
“It is hereby enacted that whoever shall be proved to have belonged, either before or after the passing of this Act, to any gang of thugs, either within or without the territories of the East India Company, shall be punished with imprisonment for life with hard labor.”
And the history is that this was a successful act in suppressing violence.
Other precedents in English legislation are the Unlawful Societies Act of 1799, the Seditious Meetings Act of 1817, the Seditious Meetings Act of 1846, the Public Order Act of 1936, and Defense Regulations 18(b). The latter, not without opposition, was intended to protect the integrity of the British Government against the fifth-column activities of this same Nazi conspiracy.
Soviet Russia punishes as a crime the formation of and membership in a criminal gang. Criminologists of the Soviet Union call this crime the “crime of banditry,” a term altogether appropriate to these German organizations. General Rudenko will advise this Tribunal more in detail as to the Soviet law.
French criminal law makes membership in subversive organizations a crime. Membership of the criminal gang is a crime in itself. My distinguished French colleague will present you more detail on that.
Of course, I would not contend that the law of a single country, even one of the signatory powers, was governing here, but it is clear that this is not an act or a concept of a single system of law, that all systems of law agree that there are points at which organizations become intolerable in a free society.
For German precedents, it is neither seemly nor necessary to go to the Nazi regime, which, of course, suppressed all their adversaries ruthlessly. However, under the Empire and the Weimar Republic German jurisprudence deserved respect, and it presents both statutory and juridical examples of declaring organizations to be criminal. Statutory examples are: The German Criminal Code enacted in 1871. Section 128 was aimed against secret associations, and 129 against organizations inimical to the State. A law of March 22, 1921, against paramilitary organizations. A law of July 1922 against organizations aimed at overthrowing the constitution of the Reich.
Section 128 of the Criminal Code of 1871 is especially pertinent. It reads:
“The participation in an organization, the existence, constitution, or purposes of which are to be kept secret from the government, or in which obedience to unknown superiors or unconditional obedience to known superiors is pledged, is punishable by imprisonment.”