Sale and Legal Proceedings
In 1999, Ungdomshuset was put up for sale by the city council. This sparked an outcry of protest from the users. The users saw it as breaking the existing agreement and the sale was taken to the courts. This would be the beginning of a legal conflict that would go on for the eight years. In 2001, the company Human A/S bought Ungdomshuset for the price of two million Danish crowns. The company was owned by the right-wing Christian sect called Faderhuset ("The Father House") who clearly stated that they wanted the users of Ungdomshuset out of the building.
In 2004, the city-court of Copenhagen decided that the city counsel had the right to sell the house. This caused anger amongst the users who claimed that the sale were a violation of the 1982-agreement and that they by law had the rights to use the house. The decision was appealed to the national-court, but in August 2006 the court approved the decision made by the city-court. The decision by the national court triggered a number of reactions including an attack on the Copenhagen city-court with paint bombs. The decision also spark a massive mobilization for a campaign in defense of Ungdomshuset. The users tried to appeal to the Supreme court, but their request was denied.
Read more about this topic: Copenhagen December Riot
Famous quotes containing the words sale, legal and/or proceedings:
“I keep thinking that what I need
to do is buy my leg back.
Surely it is for sale somewhere,
poor broken tool, poor ornament.
It might be in a store somewhere beside a lady’s scarf.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Lawyers are necessary in a community. Some of you ... take a different view; but as I am a member of that legal profession, or was at one time, and have only lost standing in it to become a politician, I still retain the pride of the profession. And I still insist that it is the law and the lawyer that make popular government under a written constitution and written statutes possible.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“And no one, it seemed, had had the presence of mind
To initiate proceedings or stop the wheel
From the number it was backing away from as it stopped:
It was performing prettily; the puncture stayed unseen....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)