A. Article 48, paragraph 2. Concerning the so-called dictatorial powers of the president--and with the permission of the Tribunal, I shall formulate these sentences linguistically in a way which make them easily translatable--“The Reich President may take those measures which are necessary to reestablish public security and order if, in the area of the German Reich, public security and order are considerably disturbed or endangered. If required, he may also intervene with the aid of the armed forces. For that purpose he is authorized temporarily to invalidate in whole or in part the basic laws which are laid down in the articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, 153.”[149] May I add, these seven basic laws are the so-called “liberal principles,” [basic liberties], the same which we find, for instance, in the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights. Q. Professor, we are now concerned with an attempt to explain the Hitler decree to the Tribunal. After all we have heard from you now, the development which has led to it that the government governed by decrees rather than by legislation, that development started already as early as 1923, and according to the information we have from you was again stipulated in 1930 at the time of a different government. I think it will be necessary to explain to the Tribunal that this development led up to the Hitler decree; went through various stages of development, and I may ask you still to describe this to us, because in the course of this case it has become necessary that this development be shown asclearly as possible. * * * * * * *