V a t t e n f a l l - Sweden´s other face

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Also in September 1997, Horno and the DOMOWINA, the Association of Lausitzer Sorbs/Wends, also files suit with the Brandenburg Constitutional Court against the "Horno Law".
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On June 18th, 1998, the Brandenburg Constitutional Court dismisses the PDS-suit against the "Horno Law" by majority decision (7:2). The Court rules that the "Horno Law" is constitutional, and that Article 25 of the State Constitution protects the Sorb/Wend traditional settlement area, but not the settlements themselves.
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With this scandalous decision the Constitutional Court betrayed the Sorb/Wend people and abandoned the people of Horno to their fate. One of the dissenting judges, Professor Dr. Karl-Heinz Schöneburg, who had been one of the founding fathers of the Brandenburg Constitution, described the Court's decision as "unconstitutional".A month later, similar suits filed by Horno and the DOMOWINA are also dismissed.
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On September 8th, 1998, the second Brown Coal Plan for the Jänschwalde mine is declared to be binding by the State Government.
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In December 1998, thirteen Horno citizens file suit together with the DOMOWINA against the federal Republic of Germany with the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg.
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In mid-December 1998, the Administration Court in Cottbus, after a four-and-a-half year delay, convenes to hear the Horno suit against the Oberbergamt's approval of LAUBAG's Outline Mining Plan for the Jänschwalde mine. The action is dismissed. The Court follows the arguments of the Brandenburg Oberbergamt and the LAUBAG, namely, that approval of the Outline Mining Plan neither required an environmental impact assessment nor did it represent an encroachment on the property rights of the Horno people. The plaintiffs apply to the Appeal Court (Oberverwaltungsgericht) for leave to appeal against the decision.
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In April 1999, the Administration Court in Cottbus dismisses the Grüne Liga's suit against approval of the Jänschwalde Outline Mining Plan. The Grüne Liga announces its intention to appeal the decision.
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In September 1999, however, another division of the same Administration Court in Cottbus grants the suit filed by the Grüne Liga against the Oberbergamt's approval of the Outline Mining Plan for the Cottbus mine. The Court ruled that according to European law an environmental impact assessment is obligatory. The Oberbergamt announces its intention to appeal the decision.
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On November 24th, 1999, the village of Grießen – two kilometres north of Horno – files suit with the Brandenburg State Constitutional Court against the State Government's decree declaring the second Jänschwalde Brown-Coal Plan to be binding. Grießen maintains, on the one hand, that the Government's decree violates its communal autonomy, robbing the municipality of 80 percent of its territory, and on the other hand, that the democratic legitimization of the State Brown-Coal Committee is inadequate.
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In May 2000, the European Court for Human Rights dismisses the suit filed by thirteen Horno citizens and the DOMOWINA against the Federal Republic of Germany. The Court confirms a serious violation of the rights of the people concerned, rejects, however, the claim that their human rights have been violated, accepting the Federal Government's argument that the destruction of Horno was for the common good of the State of Brandenburg. The Federal Government's position was not at all based on its own judgement or investigations; it had simply adopted without question the arguments put forward by the State Government.
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