The specialized courts deal with five different areas: administrative law, labour law, social law, tax law and patent law. Like ordinary courts, they are organized hierarchically with state judicial systems under a federal appellate court. Professional judges working in the various German Länder are trained legal experts and are usually employed by the Länder as civil servants for life. Lay judges are ordinary citizens chosen by a committee to serve a predetermined period of time. All judges who work in the federal courts are trained in the legal profession. They must be professional judges or lawyers. The German legal system is a civil law which, compared to common law systems, is largely based on a comprehensive collection of laws. In criminal and administrative law, Germany uses an inquisitorial system in which judges actively participate in the investigation of the facts, compared to an adversarial system in which the role of the judge is mainly that of an impartial arbitrator between the prosecutor or the plaintiff and the accused. Judges follow a clear career path. Upon completion of their legal training at the university, all law students must pass a state exam before they can pursue training that will allow them to receive extensive training in the legal profession over two years. They must then pass a second state exam, which qualifies them to practice law. At this point, the person can choose to be a lawyer or enter the judiciary. Candidate judges immediately begin working on the courts.
However, they are subject to a probationary period of up to five years before being appointed judges for life. The judicial system is established and governed by Part IX of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany (Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany). Article 92 of the Basic Law determines the courts and provides as follows: “The judiciary belongs to the judges; it shall be exercised by the Federal Constitutional Court, by the federal courts provided for in this Basic Law and by the courts of the Länder. In addition to reducing the sentence of an author, the German penal system has a form of punishment called a suspended sentence. Depending on the offence, certain penalties may remove the prison or prison sentence and replace it with probation. If a person is convicted of a crime, they can be given a suspended sentence that does not require them to go to jail if “the convicted person must prove that the conviction itself was a sufficient warning that they will not commit further crimes.” [17]. Although the person must be placed under “the supervision of a probation officer,” he or she is able to avoid the negative aspects of prison, such as “being torn from his or her past life, work, and social contracts.” [18]. Sentences of six months or less are automatically suspended by the court, as are sentences of between six months and one year, unless it is “necessary for the person to serve the sentence to maintain the legal order.” [19]. After two-thirds of an inmate`s prison sentence, it is possible to obtain a suspended sentence. The procedure for suspending a conditional sentence after serving the sentence is the same as that for an application for probation. It is even possible that offenders serving a life sentence will be given a conditional sentence after serving at least fifteen years. Like any other suspended sentence, a person who breaks probation or commits another crime may be deprived of his or her liberty and returned to prison. [20].
The German legal system is a civil system whose highest source of law is the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany of 1949 (which serves as the constitution of the nation), which establishes the modern judiciary, but the decision-making law comes from the German codes; consequently, German law is first and foremost consistent in nature. The judicial system decides on (1) public law, i.e. administrative law (civil-state disputes or disputes between two government bodies) and criminal law, and (2) private law. German law – especially private law – is mainly based on ancient Byzantine law, in particular the Justinian Code, and to a much lesser extent on the Napoleonic Code. The German judicial system is the judicial system that interprets and applies the law in Germany. Although the German legal system works differently from the Anglo-American and American systems, the legal experts who have studied it generally agree that it is fair. It offers many safeguards to ensure the fairness of investigations and judicial proceedings. This research guide provides a brief overview of German legal research. Germany is a federal parliamentary republic organized into three branches of government. The executive is headed by the president, who is more than a figurehead but has less authority than the president of the French Republic. Executive power is concentrated on the Chancellor and the Cabinet.
The legislature is a bicameral system composed of the lower house (the Federal Assembly or Bundestag) and the upper house (the Bundesrat). The Bundestag is the most powerful of the chambers. All professional judges are members of a mixed body because they are recruited through a joint process and their careers are largely governed by federal law. [8] However, most judges are state officials and follow state regulations on legal education, appointment and promotion. [9] Unlike the adversarial system used by common law countries, the German system of criminal (and administrative) proceedings is inquisitorial. Instead of allowing cross-examination between the defense and prosecutors, judges conduct most of the trial. During a trial, the parties are expected to present all their statements to the judges, who then call and question the witnesses, after which the defense lawyer and the prosecutor can question the witnesses. [1] [2] Detention begins immediately after the court has rendered its verdict at trial, unless an appeal is pending. In this case, the judgment becomes final only when the appeal is dismissed or withdrawn.
Germany used juries from the Middle Ages, for example in regional courts,[21][22][23][24], but during a state of emergency under Article 48 (the Weimar Constitution) and about a month before the trial of Adolf Hitler in February 1924 for the November 1923 brewery coup, the Emminger Reform (an emergency decree, or emergency decree) was adopted in January 1924 to abolish the jury and through the mixed system of judges still in force today. and lay judges. [25] [22] [26] In the German judicial system, there are both ordinary and specialised courts. The social courts, organized at three levels, rule on cases related to the social security system, which includes unemployment benefits, workers` compensation and social security benefits. The Federal Social Court is the highest court of social law. Ordinary courts deal with civil, criminal, family law and matrimonial law cases. (District courts also handle company registrations and other administrative matters.) These are the most numerous dishes in Germany. There are four levels of ordinary courts. District courts may have a single professional judge or up to two professional judges and two lay judges. The next level is the Regional Court, where up to three professional judges and two lay judges hear cases.
This is followed by the higher regional courts, where three to five professional judges sit. The Ordinary Supreme Court is the Federal Court of Justice. It has five professional judges who hear cases. Criminal cases may be assigned to one of the first three courts. Civil cases are usually assigned to the first two courts. Appeals may be brought before two higher courts. German law is not imbued with legal positivism to the same extent as Napoleonic legal systems, so that the German judiciary is not subordinate to the legislator, the Basic Law directly establishes the supreme judicial power at the Constitutional Court as well as other federal courts and the courts of different countries, and the right to decide is of greater importance, but not to the extent of common law systems. In Germany, disrespect for the colours, flag, coat of arms or national anthem of the country or of one of its States is a criminal offence; or to remove, damage or distort publicly displayed national flags or symbols. Insulting a person can also be a criminal offence, especially if the person is a public servant, such as a police officer or a judge acting under his or her legal authority. In the past, lay judges were predominantly middle-aged middle-class men. [13] [14] A 1969 study found that of the lay judges in their sample, about 25% were civil servants, compared to only about 12% of manual workers.
[15] A study published in 2009 estimated the proportion of public sector employees at 27% compared to 8% of the total population and revealed the relatively high number of housewives, the relatively small number of employees in the private sector and the relative age of lay judges. [11] The Federal Patent Court deals with certain intellectual property cases relating to patents, rights of use and trademarks. In the field of patents, utility models and trademarks, there is a division of jurisdiction in Germany between the Federal Patent Court and the various German regional courts. This two-part judicial system has a long tradition in Germany and is based on the idea that decisions of the German Patent and Trademark Office should be reviewed by a separate court set up for this purpose, namely the Federal Patent Court in Munich. [7] In all cases, the Court of Appeal is the Federal Court of Justice (ordinary) of the Federal Republic of Germany.
