Federal Court of Justice of Germany
Encyclopedia
The Federal Court of Justice of Germany in Karlsruhe
is the highest court
in the system of ordinary jurisdiction (ordentliche Gerichtsbarkeit) in Germany
. It is the supreme court
(court of last resort) in all matters of criminal
and private law
. A decision handed down by the BGH can only be reversed by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
in rare cases when the Constitutional Court rules on constitutionality
(compatibility with the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
).
As early as 1495 there was the so called Reichskammergericht, which existed until 1806. As from 1870, in the time of the North German Confederation
, there was the Bundesoberhandelsgericht in Leipzig
. Later, in 1871, it was renamed to Reichsoberhandelsgericht and its area of responsibility was amplified as well. This court was unsoldered by the Reichsgericht at October 1, 1879, which was also in Leipzig. Five years after the German Reich had collapsed, the Bundesgerichtshof —as it exists nowadays— was founded.
Together with the Federal Administrative Court of Germany
, the Federal Finance Court of Germany
, the Federal Labor Court of Germany
and the Federal Social Court of Germany
, the Federal Court of Justice is one of the highest courts of Germany
today, located in Karlsruhe
and Leipzig.
s:
Twelve of them are the civil panels (Zivilsenate), five additional ones are the criminal panels (Strafsenate) and the eight remaining ones are special panels.
The general function of the Federal Court of Justice is to save the uniformity of the jurisdiction on the one side, and to do law-development on the other side. So usually it just reconsiders the legal assessment of a case as a court of last resort. To that effect the following legal-sections can be differentiated in the area of responsibility of the Federal Court of Justice:
In the civil law it takes action by reconsidering decrees of the regional courts (Landgericht) and of the regional appeal courts
(Oberlandesgericht). In some special cases they also reconsider first-instance decrees of the local courts
(Amtsgericht) and the regional courts. Here it can decide that an application for revision is improper —then the application gets discarded— or that it is valid – then it has to decide about the case.
In the criminal law it has to decide about applications for revision against first-instance decrees of the regional courts (e. g. Murder
-delicts) and of the regional appeal courts (for example in state security delicts). Here it has to decide whether an application is blatantly reasonless or whether it is blatantly reasonable in support of the defendant. In both of these cases it can decide without a main trial. In any other case, it has to decide about the legal remedy after a main trial.
Finally it decides about the so-called “Vorlagesachen” (approximately: submission cases): If a regional appeal court plans to differ from a decision of another regional appeal court or from one of the Federal Court of Justice, it has to inform the Federal Court of Justice about that, which has to decide finally about this case. This is to save the homogeneity of the jurisdiction.
Judges of the Federal Court of Justice are selected by an electoral committee, which consists of the Secretaries of Justice of the 16 German Bundesländer
and of 16 representatives appointed by the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag
). Once a judge has been chosen by this committee, he is appointed by the President of Germany
. Only individuals who possess German citizenship within the meaning of Art. 116 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
, who are formally qualified to serve as a judge in accordance with § 9 DRiG and are at minimum 35 years of age can be appointed as a Judge at the Federal Court of Justice.
.
The requirement for a representative specifically admitted to the Federal Court of Justice does not apply in criminal cases. Here, representation by any lawyer admitted to the Bar in Germany suffices.
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
is the highest court
Court
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...
in the system of ordinary jurisdiction (ordentliche Gerichtsbarkeit) in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It is the supreme court
Supreme court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
(court of last resort) in all matters of criminal
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
and private law
Private law
Private law is that part of a civil law legal system which is part of the jus commune that involves relationships between individuals, such as the law of contracts or torts, as it is called in the common law, and the law of obligations as it is called in civilian legal systems...
. A decision handed down by the BGH can only be reversed by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
The Federal Constitutional Court is a special court established by the Grundgesetz, the German basic law...
in rare cases when the Constitutional Court rules on constitutionality
Constitutionality
Constitutionality is the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution. Acts that are not in accordance with the rules laid down in the constitution are deemed to be ultra vires.-See also:*ultra vires*Company law*Constitutional law...
(compatibility with the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany is the constitution of Germany. It was formally approved on 8 May 1949, and, with the signature of the Allies of World War II on 12 May, came into effect on 23 May, as the constitution of those states of West Germany that were initially included...
).
History
Before the Federal Court of Justice of Germany was created in its present form, Germany has had several prior highest courts:As early as 1495 there was the so called Reichskammergericht, which existed until 1806. As from 1870, in the time of the North German Confederation
North German Confederation
The North German Confederation 1866–71, was a federation of 22 independent states of northern Germany. It was formed by a constitution accepted by the member states in 1867 and controlled military and foreign policy. It included the new Reichstag, a parliament elected by universal manhood...
, there was the Bundesoberhandelsgericht in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
. Later, in 1871, it was renamed to Reichsoberhandelsgericht and its area of responsibility was amplified as well. This court was unsoldered by the Reichsgericht at October 1, 1879, which was also in Leipzig. Five years after the German Reich had collapsed, the Bundesgerichtshof —as it exists nowadays— was founded.
Together with the Federal Administrative Court of Germany
Federal Administrative Court of Germany
The Federal Administrative Court is one of the five federal supreme courts of Germany. It is the court of the last resort for generally all cases of administrative law, mainly disputes between citizens and the state...
, the Federal Finance Court of Germany
Federal Finance Court of Germany
The Federal Finance Court is one of the five federal supreme courts of Germany. It is the federal court of appeals for cases of tax and customs law, hearing appeals from the Finanzgerichte ....
, the Federal Labor Court of Germany
Federal Labor Court of Germany
The Federal Labor Court is the court of the last resort for cases of labour law in Germany, both for individual labour law and collective labour law...
and the Federal Social Court of Germany
Federal Social Court of Germany
The Federal Social Court is the German federal court of appeals for social security cases, mainly cases concerning the public health insurance, long-term care insurance, pension insurance and occupational accident insurance schemes. Trial courts for these cases are the Sozialgerichte...
, the Federal Court of Justice is one of the highest courts of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
today, located in Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
and Leipzig.
Organisation and functions
In order to fulfill its functions, which are explained below, the Federal Court of Justice of Germany is subdivided in twenty-five senateSenate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature or parliament. There have been many such bodies in history, since senate means the assembly of the eldest and wiser members of the society and ruling class...
s:
Twelve of them are the civil panels (Zivilsenate), five additional ones are the criminal panels (Strafsenate) and the eight remaining ones are special panels.
The general function of the Federal Court of Justice is to save the uniformity of the jurisdiction on the one side, and to do law-development on the other side. So usually it just reconsiders the legal assessment of a case as a court of last resort. To that effect the following legal-sections can be differentiated in the area of responsibility of the Federal Court of Justice:
In the civil law it takes action by reconsidering decrees of the regional courts (Landgericht) and of the regional appeal courts
Oberlandesgericht
The Oberlandesgericht is one of the 'ordinary courts' in Germany...
(Oberlandesgericht). In some special cases they also reconsider first-instance decrees of the local courts
Amtsgericht
Amtsgericht is German for Local District Court, situated in Germany in almost every larger capital of a rural district.It mainly acts in Civil and Criminal law affairs. It forms the lowest level of the so-called ordinary jurisdiction of the German judiciary , which is responsible for most criminal...
(Amtsgericht) and the regional courts. Here it can decide that an application for revision is improper —then the application gets discarded— or that it is valid – then it has to decide about the case.
In the criminal law it has to decide about applications for revision against first-instance decrees of the regional courts (e. g. Murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
-delicts) and of the regional appeal courts (for example in state security delicts). Here it has to decide whether an application is blatantly reasonless or whether it is blatantly reasonable in support of the defendant. In both of these cases it can decide without a main trial. In any other case, it has to decide about the legal remedy after a main trial.
Finally it decides about the so-called “Vorlagesachen” (approximately: submission cases): If a regional appeal court plans to differ from a decision of another regional appeal court or from one of the Federal Court of Justice, it has to inform the Federal Court of Justice about that, which has to decide finally about this case. This is to save the homogeneity of the jurisdiction.
Judges
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
and of 16 representatives appointed by the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
). Once a judge has been chosen by this committee, he is appointed by the President of Germany
President of Germany
The President of the Federal Republic of Germany is the country's head of state. His official title in German is Bundespräsident . Germany has a parliamentary system of government and so the position of President is largely ceremonial...
. Only individuals who possess German citizenship within the meaning of Art. 116 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany is the constitution of Germany. It was formally approved on 8 May 1949, and, with the signature of the Allies of World War II on 12 May, came into effect on 23 May, as the constitution of those states of West Germany that were initially included...
, who are formally qualified to serve as a judge in accordance with § 9 DRiG and are at minimum 35 years of age can be appointed as a Judge at the Federal Court of Justice.
Presidents of the Court
| name | took office | left office | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hermann Weinkauff (1894–1981) | 1 October 1950 | 31 March 1960 |
| 2 | Bruno Heusinger (1900–1987) | 1 April 1960 | 31 March 1968 |
| 3 | Robert Fischer Robert Fischer Robert Fischer may refer to:*Robert Fischer *Bobby Fischer, chess grandmaster*Robert Fischer, character in InceptionSee also*Robert Fisher *Bob Fisher... (1911–1983) |
1. April 1968 | 30. September 1977 |
| 4 | Gerd Pfeiffer (1919–2007) | 1 October 1977 | 31 December 1987 |
| 5 | Walter Odersky (b. 1931) | 1 January 1988 | 31 July 1996 |
| 6 | Karlmann Geiß (b. 1935) | 1 August 1996 | 31 May 2000 |
| 7 | Günter Hirsch Günter Hirsch Günter Hirsch is a German legal scholar and a former president of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany.-Biography:Günter Erhard Hirsch was born in Neuburg an der Donau, the second child of Erhard and Anni Hirsch. After primary school, he attended gymnasium in Neuburg, graduating with his abitur... (b. 1943) |
15 July 2000 | 31 January 2008 |
| 8 | Klaus Tolksdorf Klaus Tolksdorf Klaus Tolksdorf is a German law scientist and the president of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany as well as an Ad-Litem-Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.-Life:Tolksdorf was born in Gelsenkirchen on November 14, 1948... (b. 1948) |
1 February 2008 |
Vice Presidents
- Horst HagenHorst HagenHorst Hagen is a German former volleyball player who competed for East Germany in the 1972 Summer Olympics.He was born in Kuhsdorf, district Prignitz....
- Fritz Hauß
- Burkhard Jähnke
- Gerda MüllerGerda MullerGerda Muller is a Venezuelan fencer. She competed in the women's individual foil event at the 1952 Summer Olympics.-References:...
- Joachim Wenzel
Presiding Judges
- Alfred Bergmann
- Friedrich Blumenröhr
- Katharina Deppert
- Wolf-Dieter Dressler
- Willi Erdmann
- Wulf Goette
- Werner Groß
- Max Güde
- Monika HarmsMonika HarmsMonika Harms is a German lawyer. She has served as Attorney General of Germany from 2006-2011.-Life:Professor Harms was born in Berlin on September 29, 1946...
- Gerhart Kreft
- Klaus Kutzer
- Heinrich Wilhelm Laufhütte
- Lutz Meyer-Goßner
- Armin Nack
- Gerd Nobbe
- Eberhard Rinne
- Ruth Rissing-van Saan
- Rüdiger Rogge
- Gerhard Schäfer
- Herbert Schimansky
- Wolfgang Schlick
- Karl-Bernhard Schmitz
- Ingeborg Tepperwien
- Wilfried Terno
Judges
- Ekkehard Appl
- Gerhard Athing
- Clemens Basdorf
- Jörg-Peter Becker
- Rolf Bischoff
- Peter Blauth
- Bernhard Bode
- Axel Boetticher
- Hans-Peter Brause
- Siegfried Broß
- Hans-Joachim Brüning
- Wolfgang Büsche
- Erhard Bungeroth
- Gabriele Calliebe
- Ursula Safari Chabestari
- Jürgen Cierniak
- Hans-Joachim Czub
- Klaus Detter
- Hans-Joachim Dose
- Renate Elf
- Andreas Ernemann
- Hans Joachim Faller
- Detlev Fischer
- Thomas Fischer
- Ulrich Franke
- Reinhard Gaier
- Gregor Galke
- Markus Gehrlein
- Alfons van Gelder
- Wolfgang Gerber
- Ursula Gerhardt
- Jürgen von Gerlach
- Jürgen-Peter GrafJürgen-Peter GrafDr. Jürgen-Peter Graf is a German lawyer. He became judge of the German Federal Court of Justice on February 5, 2003....
- Karl Haager
- Joachim Häger
- Ulrich Hebenstreit
- Hartwig Henze
- Monika Hermanns
- Ulrich Herrmann
- Dieter Hesselberger
- Erwin Hubert
- Gerbert Hübsch
- Bernhard Jestaedt
- Hans-Ulrich Joeres
- Hans-Peter Kirchhof
- Harald Kolz
- Christine Krohn
- Jürgen-Detlef Kuckein
- Heidi Lambert-Lang
- Reiner Lemke
- Manfred Lepa
- Gerhard von Lienen
- Kurt Rüdiger Maatz
- Heinrich Maul
- Hans-Kurt Mees
- Elisabeth Mühlens
- Maren Münke
- Wolfgang NeskovicWolfgang NeškovićWolfgang Nešković is a German politician, representative of the party The Left.-External links:...
- Wolfgang Pfister
- Friedrich Quack
- Rolf Raum
- Angelika Reichart
- Dietrich Reinicke
- Karin-Huberta Ritter
- Ellen Roggenbuck
- Wolfgang Römer
- Hans-Jürgen Schaal
- Wilhelm Schluckebier
- Jürgen Schmidt-Räntsch
- Bertram Schmitt
- Ernst Schneider
- Otto Seidl
- Helmut Simon (judge)
- Joachim Siol
- Daniela Solin-Stojanovic
- Beate Sost-Scheible
- Joachim Starck
- Heinz Dieter Stodolkowitz
- Christina StresemannChristina StresemannChristina Stresemann is a Judge at the Federal Court of Justice of Germany.Until 2003, she worked at the District Court in Berlin, in the Berlin State Ministry of Justice and at the Chamber's Court in Cologne....
- Lutz Strohn
- Rheinhold Thode
- Ernst TrägerErnst TrägerErnst Träger is a German judge. He was a judge in the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany between 1977 and 1989.-External links:*...
- Karl-Friedrich Tropf
- Gerhard Ulsamer
- Gerhard Vill
- Max Vogt
- Thomas Wagenitz
- Bernhard Wahl
- Roland Wendt
- Manfred Werp
- Klaus WinterKlaus WinterKlaus Winter was a German judge. He was a judge in the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany .-References:...
- Karl-Hermann Zoll
- Jannpeter Zopfs
- Horst Josef Zugehör
- Lothar Zysk
Attorneys admitted at the Federal Court of Justice
In all civil cases heard by the Federal Court of Justice, the parties need to be represented by an attorney who has been specifically admitted to the Bar at the Federal Court of Justice (Rechtsanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof). This admission is the only 'special' admission within the German court system, in that an attorney at the Federal Court of Justice for civil cases cannot appear in any other court in the country. Admission at the Bundesgerichtshof is highly selective; currently there are only 39 attorneys so admitted. Candidates for admission are nominated by an electoral committee and are then chosen and appointed by the Federal Ministry of JusticeFederal Ministry of Justice (Germany)
The Federal Ministry of Justice is a federal ministry in Germany.Under the federal system of Germany, individual states are most responsible for the administration of justice and the application of penalties. The Federal Ministry of Justice devotes itself to creating and changing law in the...
.
The requirement for a representative specifically admitted to the Federal Court of Justice does not apply in criminal cases. Here, representation by any lawyer admitted to the Bar in Germany suffices.
Publication of Cases
Since 2000, judgments by the Federal Court of Justice have been published on the official website of the Court.External links
- official website of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany with
- The Federal Court of Justice Published by the Federal Court of Justice, Karlsruhe, 2010 (PDF)