FORESTRY IN GERMANY. 1 49 



SECTION III. 



AS TO THE METHOD OF PROCEEDING IN FOREST TRESPASSES. — (l) THE INFORMATION, 

 STOPPING, AND SEIZURE OF TRESPASSERS. 



Art. 22. Persons in charge of forests, to whom the oversight of the forest is intrusted, 

 whether of a public or private character, and all police officers are bound to watch closely for 

 forest thefts and to make known the same. 



Art. 23. If any one is caught in a trespass, those who have oversight of the forest, includ- 

 ing the owner and whoever else has an interest in it, are authorized to stop the trespasser, to 

 seize him, and if it be an unknown person to take him into custody. 



Art. 24. If the trespasser is refractory, the possessor, or the person acting for him, as well 

 as the officer on duty, are allowed to use all necessary power in their own defense. This 

 power, however, may only be used under the conditions of self-defense. (Section 53, imperial 

 penal laws.) Unnecessary provocations to make the trespasser refractory are forbidden and 

 will be punished according to law. 



Art. 25. If in forest thefts or in trespasses against the police regulations, established in 

 article 16, under I, 2, 3, 14, 18, and 20, and article 17, the tools used were taken from him at 

 the time the deed was committed, shall be returned only after the trespasser has made the 

 damage good, for which they shall be held as security. 



If the money is not paid within four weeks the right to redeem said tools shall be forfeited. 



(2) COMPETENCY OF COURTS AND PENAL PROCEEDINGS. 



The provisions of the regulation of penal processes with the amendments and the follow- 

 ing regulations shall determine the competency of the courts as well as penal proceedings in 

 forest misdemeanors. 



Art. 27. In thefts in which the punishment is according to choice, imprisonment or a cor- 

 responding fine, the accused may prevent further proceedings by making the damage good and 

 paying the fine and costs, which shall be made known to him at the time of summons, pro- 

 vided that this be done before the expiration of the time allowed by law. After the expira- 

 tion of this time the imprisonment, or labor, regulated by law, may not be changed into a fine 

 by the choice of the accused. 



Art. 28. In the punishments for forest trespasses, the court must determine according to 

 law the damage to be paid (articles 14 and 20), as far as the person damaged ha^ not given it 

 into the hands of any one else, and in the cases, designated in article 16, section 16, shall at 

 the same time threaten the withdrawal of all privileges. 



Art. 29. In acts punishable by labor to be determined by the courts and falling under the 

 present law (paragraph 5 of the law of December 22, 1870), containing transition regulations, 

 at the introduction of the North-German penal code, takes effect, but the following is also to 

 be taken into account : 



a. The culprits sentenced to labor-punishment shall give security for the full performance 

 of the same. Any labor, whether forest or common, shall be in accord with the physical 

 ability of the culprit, and shall be done under the direction of the proj)er officials or other 

 authorities. 



b. Forest culprits shall not be entitled to support during the time they are engaged in such 

 labor. 



t. The culprits shall perform their labor in the same manner as it is usually performed by 

 hired laborers, and ten working hours shall constitute a day. 



d. The labor shall be performed in the forest, where the damage was done, for the benefit 

 and at the consent of the owner of the wood, when the forest officers find it proper to do so. 



e. If a culprit, under sentence of punishment by labor, absents himself without sufficient 

 excuse, this shall be regarded as a refusal. 



