Federal Court of Justice of Germany

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The “Federal Court of Justice of Germany” (German: “Bundesgerichtshof” or “BGH”) is the highest court of the system of ordinary courts (“ordentliche Gerichtsbarkeit”) in Germany.

1 History
2 Organisation and functions
3 Judges
4 Lawyers
5 Publication of decrees
6 Links
7 References

[edit] History

Before the Federal Court of Justice of Germany was created in the present form, there have been some prior highest courts of Germany already:

As early as 1495 there was the so called “Reichskammergericht”, that 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. ^[1] This court was unsoldered by the “Reichsgericht” at the 1st October of 1879, which was also in Leipzig. ^[2] Five years after the German Reich had collapsed, the “Bundesgerichtshof” —as it exists nowadays— was founded. ^[3]

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. ^[4]

[edit] 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 senates:

Twelve of them are the civil panels (“Zivilsenate”), five additional ones are the criminal panels (“Strafsenate”) and the eight remaining ones are special panels. ^[5]

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. ^[6] 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. ^[7]

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. ^[8]

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. ^[9]

[edit] Judges

Judges of the Federal Court of Justice are elected by an electoral committee, which consists of 16 Justice Secretaries and of 16 people, who were elected by the Bundestag. After the judge has been elected by this committee, he is appointed by the President of Germany. Just people who are Germans within the meaning of the Art. 116 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany and have the ability for judgeship according to the §9 DRiG and are finally at least 35 years old can be appointed to a judge at the Federal Court of Justice. ^[10]

Presidents ^[11]
number	name	taking office	end of the term of office
1	Hermann Weinkauff (1894–1981)	1. Oktober 1950	31. März 1960
2	Bruno Heusinger (1900–1987)	1. April 1960	31. März 1968
3	Robert Fischer (judge) (1911–1983)	1. April 1968	30. September 1977
4	Gerd Pfeiffer (1919–2007)	1. Oktober 1977	31. Dezember 1987
5	Walter Odersky (* 1931)	1. Januar 1988	31. Juli 1996
6	Karlmann Geiß (* 1935)	1. August 1996	31. Mai 2000
7	Günter Hirsch (* 1943)	15. Juli 2000	31. Januar 2008
8	Klaus Tolksdorf (* 1948)	1. Februar 2008

[edit] Vice Presidents

Horst Hagen
Fritz Hauß
Burkhard Jähnke
Gerda Müller
Joachim Wenzel

[edit] Presiding Judges

Friedrich Blumenröhr
Katharina Deppert
Wolf-Dieter Dressler
Willi Erdmann
Wulf Goette
Werner Groß
Max Güde
Monika Harms
Gerhart Kreft
Klaus Kutzer
Heinrich Wilhelm Laufhütte
Lutz Meyer-Goßner
Armin Nack
Gerd Nobbe
Eberhard Rinne
Ruth Rissing-van Saan
Rüdiger Rogge
Volker Röhricht
Gerhard Schäfer
Herbert Schimansky
Wolfgang Schlick
Karl-Bernhard Schmitz
Ingeborg Tepperwien
Wilfried Terno

[edit] Judges

Courthouse

Ekkehard Appl
Gerhard Athing
Clemens Basdorf
Jörg Peter Becker
Alfred Bergmann
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 Graf
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 Neskovic
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 Stresemann
Lutz Strohn
Rheinhold Thode
Ernst Träger
Karl-Friedrich Tropf
Gerhard Ulsamer
Gerhard Vill
Max Vogt
Thomas Wagenitz
Bernhard Wahl
Roland Wendt
Manfred Werp
Klaus Winter
Karl-Hermann Zoll
Jannpeter Zopfs
Horst Josef Zugehör
Lothar Zysk

[edit] Lawyers

In all cases, on which the civil panels has to decide, there is a enforcement to have a lawyer, who needs to be approved. The only lawyers that can be approved are those who are at least 35 years old, have been a (active) lawyer for at least five years and got nominated by the electoral committee. Requests for approval are decided by the Federal Ministry of Justice (Germany). In 2007 there were 44 approved lawyers at the court. ^[12]

[edit] Publication of decrees

Since 2000 decrees of the Federal Court of Justice are publicized on the official website of the court. ^[13]

[edit] Links

official website of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany

[edit] References

“Brockhaus in drei Bänden” (German), page 839, ISBN-13: 978-3-7-653-1514-5
“Meyers Großes Taschenlexikon in 24 Bänden” (German), page 1038, ISBN-13: 978-3-411-10063-7