
Contents
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Contemporary Judicial Authority and Courts Contemporary Judicial Authority and Courts
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Decentralization Decentralization
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Specialization Specialization
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Two Representative Courts: Federal Court of Justice and Federal Constitutional Court Two Representative Courts: Federal Court of Justice and Federal Constitutional Court
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Federal Court of Justice Federal Court of Justice
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Federal Constitutional Court Federal Constitutional Court
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The European Judicial Framework The European Judicial Framework
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Conclusion Conclusion
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Further Readings Further Readings
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Bibliography Bibliography
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12 The German Legal System and Courts
Get accessRussell A. Miller is J.B. Stombock Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He is the co-founder of the German Law Journal, former Head of the Max Planck Law Network, and inter alia has won a Humboldt Research Prize in recognition of his years of scholarly engagement with German law. His publications include The Constitutional Jurisprudence of the Federal Republic of Germany (with Donald Kommers) (3rd edn, Durham: Duke University Press, 2021); Privacy and Power: A Transatlantic Dialogue After the NSA-Affair (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019); Transboundary Harm in International Law: Lessons from the Trail Smelter Arbitration (with Rebecca Bratspies) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
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Published:18 August 2022
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Abstract
The German legal system and courts have roots in ancient, barbarian Germania. That cultural tradition passed through the feudal medieval period, the Holy Roman Empire, the Prussian Empire, and the democratic and tyrannical convulsions of the twentieth century. The contemporary judicial framework of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) still bears many characteristics accumulated over that long journey. It is a legal culture aligned with the continental or civil law tradition. This has produced jurisdictional—or subject matter—specialization. Germany’s deep-seated federalism is reflected in the judiciary’s decentralization, pursuant to which the federation and states share responsibility for administering justice. Two courts help illustrate these features: the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice) and the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court). This era’s contribution to the long story of German law might be the German legal system’s new openness to international legal regimes and to cooperating with extra-jurisdictional courts based in the European systems, including the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
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