German Judicial System

The Federal Republic of Germany has a democratic constitution and exercises the necessary measures for maintaining law and order, equality before the law, and freedom of the public.

The German Judicial system can be classified into three types of courts. These three types are:
i) Ordinary court, ii) Constitutional court and iii) Specialized court.

The Supreme Court of Germany is called the Federal Constitutional Court.

i) Ordinary court: - The ordinary courts decide on criminal, civil and family legal matters. The ordinary courts are further classified into four levels:

• The Local court – basic level,
• The Regional court,
• The Higher Regional court and
• The Federal Court of Justice- top level.

In the Local court, legal matters are decided by a single judge. The Local courts administer all types of criminal matters. If they are serious, then there are up to two additional judges who assist the principal judge. Civil matters may or may not be registered with the Local courts since they can be directly filed with the Regional courts. Legal matters decided in the local courts can only be appealed to the next two levels of courts. There are many hundreds of local courts in Germany.

The Regional courts are above the local courts. The Regional courts hand down judgments on criminal and civil matters. They also hand down judgments for criminal and civil matters on appeal from the local courts. Regional court judges are specialized in specific fields (e.g. criminal or civil). There are over one hundred regional courts in Germany.

The Higher Regional courts are one level above the Regional courts. These courts mainly rule on matters that have been appealed in the lower courts. They also decide on legal matters involving treason. The Judges in these courts are also classified according to their specialty, i.e. civil, criminal, etc.

The Federal Court of Justice is the highest court where those cases heard in the Regional or Higher Regional courts can be appealed. The Federal Court of Justice only rules on appeals of lower court decisions. It does not directly hear other legal matters.

Federal Constitutional Court

The Federal Constitutional Court is the judicial body of last resort in Germany. The Federal Constitutional Court has a sixteen-judge panel that is further divided into two senates, each having a group of eight judges. The Federal Constitutional Court decides on reviews of constitutional law, requiring at least a two-thirds majority of the total number of judges to finalize decisions.

The specialized courts are the: labor courts, administrative courts, social courts, financial courts and intellectual property rights courts.