Celní předpisy v německém celním spolku

The general customs union arose as the union of the countries which united on the basis of agreement their territories (or their parts only) into one customs territory where the uniform customs tariff was valid. The members of the uni­on adopted nearly identical prescriptions regulating the customs proceedings and other institutes of the customs law and obliged themselves to mutual legal adap­tations of the customs torts and their recourse, the customs administration and the customs supervision.

The wording of the basic customs prescriptions and later the proposals of the members concerning their complement and modification were prepared together by the representatives of the members in the union organs (the General Customs Conference, after 1867 the Union Council of the Customs Union and the Customs Parliament). The final decision in the process of the approval of the substantial customs prescriptions was realised by the members of the union, as the customs prescriptions were publihed as their intranational norms. After the establishing of the German customs union the members adopted - apart from the common tariff - unsubstantially different customs laws and the customs regulations. They, however, did not agree on the wording of the criminal-law regulations because of the great difference of intranational regulations; they only approved the leading principles of the customs criminal law and the principles of the customs torts proceedings as a guidance for bringing their legislation closer together.

The customs tariff was revaluated by the union organs regularly in three years' interval. The organs also regularly evaluated the suggestions for the modernisation of the customs law and the customs regulations. During the negotiations at general customs conferences the singular members could, however, exercise the veto power; the change of valid statutes was, consequently, very difficult. In spite of this the fast boom of the industrial production and the new means of transport as well as the efforts to remove the commercial barriers forced some changes.

The reorganisation of the German Customs Union in 1867 caused the rise of the new union organs in which the veto power could be exercised only by Prussia. This made the adoption of the new regulations so that the Union Council of the Customs Union and the Customs Parliament succceded - even in a very strained atmosphere of home political life - in preparing not only the extensive reorganisation of the existing customs legislation and the customs tariff, but also a new union customs law.