It is the first tool of this kind. On the one hand, it offers a database that classifies and categorises for the whole of Switzerland the legal acts and the framework laws that set forth the restriction of freedom beyond the principle of legality ruling offence and punishment – without claiming exhaustiveness. Many of the legal bases are available as unabridged texts (pdf files). On the other hand, it supplies an analytical commentary to the database as a legal typology.

This project aims to give a large public access to legal texts that are historic witnesses of administrative detention, in order to make people understand the importance, the complexity and the diversity of the legal landscape in this sector. This collection of laws also intends to be a useful research tool for further studies in the fields of legal and historical sciences.

Help for reading the collection of laws (example from Canton Nidwalden, in German)

Reading the acts

The legal bases that regulate administrative detention are mainly cantonal acts. There is great heterogeneity among the Cantons both from the point of view of the chronology of the promulgation of the acts and from the point of view of their placement in the hierarchy of legal norms. The original texts of the laws on administrative detention are accessible in pdf format from the database. Reading them, one notices for example the terminology used to define the recriminated behaviour and the groups of persons targeted by these legal texts.

Classifying the acts

The database classifies the legal bases on administrative detention according to various criteria that aim at placing these acts in space and time. These criteria are considered useful for the legal analysis of the texts and are explained and developed within the typology not only from the point of view of legal theory, but also through concrete examples taken from significant legal texts.

Consulting the acts

The database is more of a research tool than a collection of legal texts. It allows to select and to extract laws according to specific criteria such as the decision-making authorities, the possibility of appealing or the duration of the detention. It is possible to put preliminary questions: which are the authorities that issued detention orders? Which Cantons adopted appeal procedures and when? Etc.

Author

Nicole Gönitzer

Research direction

Dr. Christel Gumy, Prof. Lukas Gschwend

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project is a contribution to the basic research on administrative detention. A considerable part of the work consists in collecting, analysing and providing cantonal and federal legal bases. The author thanks the State archives of the Cantons for allowing her to access the collections of laws, for giving competent specialised advice and for generously providing the reproductions