To a. In reply to communication dated 19 January 1940.
I East 40/40
4024
Enclosures: 3 drafts
I request agreement as soon as possible to the drafts enclosed—
(a) An order concerning the abolition of the district court of appeal at Marienwerder, and the modification of the court district.
(b) An order concerning the court organization and court constitution in the Incorporated Eastern Territories.
(c) An order concerning the taking effect of legal regulations in the sphere of the administration of criminal law in the Incorporated Eastern Territories.[317]
An additional draft concerning the introduction of legal regulations in the sphere of the administration of civil law will be dispatched at the same time.
I have likewise asked the Reich Minister of Economics and the Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda for their agreement with regard to article 1, I, Nos. 8, 10, and 11 of draft (c). Furthermore, I have asked for the agreement of the Reich Protector for Bohemia and Moravia concerning article 1, II, No. 2 of draft (c). The organization of the courts in the Incorporated Eastern Territories was completed several months ago, and German courts are working everywhere there and applying German law, without this application of law having found its legal basis. The Reich governor of the Reich Gau Wartheland in a letter dated 11 December 1939 told me that it is now desirable for the application of German law by German courts to receive a legal basis. Likewise the Reich governor of the Reich Gau Danzig/West Prussia had me informed that it would conform to his wishes if the German law were henceforth introduced legally in the Incorporated Eastern Territories. The introduction of German law is also necessary, because the regulation for the prevention of acts of violence in the Incorporated Eastern Territories, prepared by the Ministry of the Interior, tacitly implies the application of German criminal law and court constitutional law.