Cameron Miranda
German case law can be found through various online and print sources. The Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) provides an online database of full German texts of decisions since 1 January 1998, with press releases on leading cases available in English. The official publication of certain judgments of the Federal Constitutional Court can be found in the Bundesgesetzblatt. The Institute of Global Law of the University College London Faculty of Laws, in cooperation with the Institute of Transnational Law at the University of Texas School of Law, contains a database of over 500 German legal decisions translated into English. The University of Minnesota Law Library and New York University Law Library also provide guides to German legal research, including links to free online databases of judicial opinions and case law.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Main sources of German case law | The Federal Constitutional Court, the Federal Court of Justice, and the Federal Labour Court |
| Where to find German case law | The Federal Constitutional Court provides an online database of full German texts of decisions since 1 January 1998. Recent decisions are often available on court websites, some of which may offer limited navigation in English. The University of Minnesota Law Library, Georgetown Law Library, and New York University Law Library also provide access to German case law. |
| Language | Most German case law is available in German only, but some decisions are translated into English. |
| Search parameters | German cases cannot usually be searched by party names. Further details relating to the subject area, date of the decision, and the type of court are required. |
| Binding nature of decisions | German courts do not operate under the principle of stare decisis, meaning that most decisions are only binding on the parties to the proceedings. The only exception is the Federal Constitutional Court, whose decisions are binding on all lower courts. |
| Official publication | The only truly official publication of German case law is certain judgments of the Federal Constitutional Court, published in the Bundesgesetzblatt. |
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What You'll Learn
Federal Constitutional Court decisions
The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany is a special court that reviews judicial, legislative, and administrative decisions to ensure they comply with the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, or the country's constitution. The Federal Constitutional Court is the only court in Germany that can declare statutes unconstitutional under the Basic Law, though all German courts can review the constitutionality of governmental actions within their jurisdiction. The Federal Constitutional Court's powers are outlined in Article 94 of the Basic Law, with further details provided in the Federal Constitutional Court Act (Bundesverfassungsgerichtsgesetz).
The Court's decisions are binding on state and federal legislatures and all other courts. The Court publishes selected decisions on its website, providing press releases for leading cases in English. The official German texts of decisions made since 1 January 1998 are available on the Court's website. The only official publication of Federal Constitutional Court judgments is in the Bundesgesetzblatt.
The Federal Constitutional Court has two panels, or senates, of eight judges each, with each panel having jurisdiction over distinct areas of constitutional law. Judges are elected for a single, non-renewable 12-year term by the Bundesrat and a special committee of the Bundestag, with each judge requiring a two-thirds majority of votes. The Court handles a heavy workload of around 5,000 cases annually.
Any individual claiming an infringement of their basic rights may bring a constitutional complaint before the Federal Constitutional Court. Additionally, lower courts facing doubts about the constitutionality of a law must submit the question to the Federal Constitutional Court and stay their proceedings. The Federal Constitutional Court can also review the constitutionality of a statute before it takes effect if petitioned by the federal or state government or one-third of the members of the Bundestag.
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Federal Court of Justice decisions
The Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof – BGH) is Germany’s highest court of civil and criminal jurisdiction. It was instituted on 1 October 1950 and is based in Karlsruhe.
The civil divisions of the Federal Court of Justice primarily deal with appeals on points of law and complaints against the denial of leave to appeal on points of law. In some cases, the decision by the appellate court can be further appealed to the Federal Court of Justice, but only on points of law. The criminal divisions of the Federal Court of Justice also deal with appeals on points of law. Criminal cases involving lesser offences are decided in the first instance by a district court, while more serious offences are initially decided by panels of regional or higher regional courts. Criminal cases originating in a regional or higher regional court can subsequently be appealed to the Federal Court of Justice on points of law.
Judgments made by the Federal Court of Justice since 1 January 2000 can be accessed via its judgments database. The judgments are only available in German. For searching the Federal Court’s judgments by English terminology, you can use the Common Portal of Case Law of the Network of the Presidents of the Supreme Courts of the European Union. The Federal Court of Justice also maintains a database of its decisions from 2000 to the present.
Decisions of the Federal Court of Justice are the easiest to locate. More recent decisions may be downloaded from free online case law databases accessed through the courts’ respective websites. English translations of decisions issued by German courts are limited to landmark decisions issued by the Federal Court of Justice. If no translation is available, an in-depth analysis of a court decision, or a summary, published in a journal article or in another secondary source, is the best alternative.
Subscription-based German language legal research platforms, such as Beck-Online and Juris, offer more comprehensive, searchable databases of German case law. The University of Oxford's Institute of European and Comparative Law also publishes cases, statutes, literature and bibliographies on German law in English.
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Federal Labour Court decisions
The Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) is the court of last resort for cases of labour law in Germany. It deals with both individual labour law, which mostly concerns contracts of employment, and collective labour law, such as cases concerning strikes and collective bargaining. The court hears cases from the Landesarbeitsgerichte (Superior State Labour Courts), which are themselves the courts of appeals for decisions of the Arbeitsgerichte (Inferior State Labour Courts). The Federal Labour Court is located in Erfurt, Thuringia, and has been since 1999.
The court's principal task is to ensure uniformity of court decisions in the area of labour law. It is also responsible for the development of the law, particularly in areas left unregulated by legislation, either unintentionally or intentionally (e.g. in the law relating to industrial action). The Federal Labour Court has joined the Superior Courts Network, a jurisdiction network maintained by the European Court of Human Rights, which aims to ensure the effective exchange of information between supreme national courts in Europe and the European Court of Human Rights on legal issues relating to human rights.
There are two types of labour court procedures: "Urteil" and "Beschluss". "Urteil" procedures are similar to civil procedures, in that it is the responsibility of the parties involved to provide the court with the information and evidence needed to make a decision. "Beschluss" procedures, on the other hand, require the court to establish the facts of the case. "Urteil" procedures are used in disputes between employees and employers arising from an existing employment relationship, its conclusion, or termination. "Beschluss" procedures are used for matters concerning the Works Constitution Act, the Senior Management Representatives Committee Act, and different Workers' Participation Acts.
At the Federal Labour Court, panels ("Senate") are made up of three professional judges and two lay judges representing the employers' and employees' sides respectively. Research associates also support the Judges of the Federal Labour Court by producing legal opinions and detailed draft decisions ("Voten") on specific cases in preparation for hearings.
The official website of the Federal Labour Court provides a German-language decisions database of the court, with coverage from 2010 onwards. The University of Minnesota Law Library also provides a database of over 500 German legal decisions translated into English, which includes decisions from the Federal Labour Court.
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Federal Finance Court decisions
The Federal Finance Court in Germany is known as the Bundesfinanzhof (Federal Finance Court) or the Federal Fiscal Court. It is one of the five highest courts of the Federal Republic of Germany and is the court of last instance for disputes concerning tax and customs law.
The Federal Finance Court's decisions can be found on its German-language decisions database, which has coverage from 2010 onwards. There is some information about the publications of this court's decisions on its English-language webpage. The official website of the Federal Constitutional Court also provides an online database of full German texts of decisions since 1 January 1998, with press releases on leading cases available in English.
The Justice Portal of the Federal and State Governments maintains a directory of German court websites, many of which provide online access to selected judicial decisions. However, many court websites do not offer searchable case law databases, so you may need to browse chronologically by the date of the decision, or by docket number or party name.
English translations of German case law can be found through the Institute for Transnational Law at the University of Texas School of Law, which contains a database of over 500 German legal decisions translated into English. The German Law Archive at the Comparative Law Society also publishes cases, statutes, literature and bibliographies on German law in English.
For older decisions, print reporters are the best sources, with some available at the Georgetown Law Library.
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Online databases
Rechtsprechung im Internet
This database contains decisions of the various Federal courts dating back to 2010.
Juris
Juris is a legal research database for Germany, offering an extensive library of European, federal, and regional legal primary materials, including current and historical legislation (Gesetze) and case law (Rechtsprechung). Its legal secondary materials include statutory commentaries (Kommentare), periodicals (Zeitschriften), and more.
Institute for Transnational Law (UT-Austin)
The Institute for Transnational Law at the University of Texas School of Law contains a database of over 500 German legal decisions translated into English. Decisions are from the Bundesverfassungsgericht and the Bundesgerichtshof and cover constitutional, administrative, contract, and tort law.
German Law Archive
The German Law Archive, maintained by the Comparative Law Society, publishes cases, statutes, literature, and bibliographies on German law in English.
Justiz.de
Justiz.de is an English-language portal for German case law. This site provides links to federal and state court websites through which judicial opinions can be accessed. The portal is in English; however, all of the sites are in German.
Justizportal des Bundes und der Länder (Federal and State Justice Portal)
This is a free resource and portal of links to federal and state court websites, most of which include free access databases of recent court decisions and RSS feeds for alerts when new decisions are published.
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Frequently asked questions
The University of Oxford's Institute of European and Comparative Law publishes cases, statutes, literature, and bibliographies on German law in English. The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Transnational Law also provides English translations of selected German cases. Additionally, Rechtsprechung im Internet contains decisions of various Federal courts from 2010 onwards.
The official website of the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) provides an online database of full German texts of decisions since 1 January 1998. The Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) also provides a database of its decisions from 2000 onwards, and the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht) and Federal Finance Court (Bundesfinanzhof) offer databases of decisions from 2010 onwards.
Yes, older decisions issued prior to the late 1990s can be found in print reporters. The Georgetown Law Library has some of these print reporters, including decisions of the Federal Court of Justice in civil and criminal matters.
Yes, recent judicial decisions are often available on court websites. Additionally, the Federal Constitutional Court offers a searchable database of its materials from 1951 onwards, called Entscheidung finden.
Yes, Juris is a legal research database for Germany that offers an extensive library of European, federal, and regional legal primary materials, including case law. The New York University Law Library also provides access to English translations of German legal materials in the fields of constitutional, administrative, contract, and tort law.
