6 minutes agoThat is how judges in Germany are appointed
Periskopi(9 years ago)
(9 years ago)Judges are the executioners of power in Germany. They have many rights. How are they chosen and appointed? Germany is valued worldwide for its justice organs and rule of law. But in recent years criticism has increased that decisions made by justice bodies are sometimes political by means [...]
Judges are the executioners of power in Germany. They have many rights. How are they chosen and appointed?
Germany is valued worldwide for its justice organs and rule of law. But in recent years criticism has increased that decisions made by justice bodies are sometimes political by other means. Is that true?
There are more than 20,000 judges in Germany. They're independent. The decision on who becomes judge is taken by the Ministries of Law. In the case of selecting judges for federal courts (the Supreme Court, the federal Court for Social Affairs, the federal Court for Administrative Affairs, the federal Court for Economic and Financial Affairs, and the federal Court for Labour Affairs) the constitution says their selection must be made according to the principle of the best. But the election of these judges is nontransparently made by a commission consisting of 32 members. This commission votes in secret. 16 members of this commission are determined by the countries' justice ministries, and the other 16 are experts who define Bundestag. These should not necessarily be deputies, but should be competent in the field of justice. Decisions within the commission are made in simple majority.
But in this commission, the main role is CDU/ CSU and SPD, other parties have the best role of the figure. So usually in the appointment of judges is the “Pata personnel” which the two largest groups in parliament initially agree to, Union and SPD. The Green and Left parties disagree with this. Former head of the Justice Commission in Parliament, Renate Künast, said in 2014: “Who is not comfortable or for some reason becomes unwanted is not resolved. ”
Appeals From Contestants
In 2015 a prominent jurist was nominated by the Minister of Justice of the Land, the Low Saxony, as High Court judge. Ayu was twice rejected and a close candidate was elected to the CDU party. The candidate complained to the Administrative Court because of violating the principle of the best.
Especially small parties demand reform of the process of electing judges. They view the process as untransparent. Decisions are made only according to files and without interviewing candidates. They also strongly criticize the ban on providing information on the selection procedure.
More and more candidates for five federal courts doubt the objective of the Judges' Court' decisions. The newspaper “Der Spiegel” quoted a high judge in 2014 as saying that this ban is made because the designated “persones are unwanted, but their refusal is not made openly. ”
Disgusting the appointment of Constitutional Court judges
Public criticism also has a constant bearing on the appointments of the highest German court, the Constitutional Court. The election of constitutional judges is made by a commission of 12 deputies. This committee too works with closed doors. That does not seem fair even to the current president of the Constitutional Court, Andreas Vo justly. In a comment on the constitution, he wrote several years ago: “This rule according to most literature is considered unconstitutional. ”
Norbert Lammert (CDU), the lawyer himself and for many years president of the German Parliament, has indicated that in 2012, however little, “legislation” enables some judges to make such a leap into their career until the Constitutional Court. He said that requests to candidates for constitutional judges are lower than those for the federal government's charge for data or the military.
But “the political control” of parties in selecting candidates for judges' posts in Germany's highest courts is sharply criticised only rarely. The importance of this political control may be justified because of abuse of justice by the Nazis. But parties today tend to exploit the privilege of control even for their own interests. In a comment to Deutsche Welle the chairman of the German Judges' League, Jens Gnisa, said indirectly referring to developments in Poland, that the reforms there “had enabled the national-conservative government to intervene deeply in Polish justice and the court appointments to do according to its wishes. ”
