Government, Judiciary

Germany follows civil law (or Roman law) procedures and organization, which differ substantially from American and British common law. Judges play a more activist role, and attorneys a lesser one, than in an American courtroom. In a typical German criminal trial, a panel of judges hears the case. The panel includes the investigating judge, who conducts a prior investigation of the facts of the case and decides if it should be tried at all. The states’ ministries of justice appoint and promote most judges.

German courts at the state level form separate hierarchies depending on the kind of law that they administer: civil, criminal, administrative, social insurance, financial, or labor law. Each state system is headed by a high court, and there is one federal court for each of these specialties. However, plaintiffs may appeal their cases up to the appropriate federal court only if they can demonstrate that similar cases involving the same federal laws have been interpreted differently by the high courts of other states. In such a case, the federal court gives a binding interpretation of the law in question.

Germany also maintains a separate, non-Roman law system of constitutional courts, which interpret their respective state constitutions and the Basic Law. The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe is the most important. It has a total of 16 judges, 8 selected by the Bundestag and 8 by the Bundesrat. A judicial candidate must receive a two-thirds majority vote, thus ensuring a broad consensus on the selection. The Federal Constitutional Court comprises two panels. One panel deals with the bill of rights, articles 1 to 20 of the Basic Law; the other panel judges disputes among federal bodies, among states, and between levels of government. The court has invalidated about 800 federal and state laws and regulations and given its interpretation on well over half of the articles of the Basic Law. A large part of its work involves citizens’ complaints about violations of the bill of rights. It has even heard foreign policy issues, including cases on the constitutionality of treaties.