American mediation and arbitration constitute a substantial professional industry, with certification bodies, rules, and clauses written into most commercial contracts. The contract itself anticipates that disagreement will be negotiated rather than litigated.
law
Fixed book prices
Die Buchpreisbindung. German law fixes the retail price of books. Every shop sells the same title at the same price, and the publisher sets it. The price is treated as a property of the book rather than of the transaction.
Signing authority
Der Prokurist. A German commercial role defined in the Commercial Code, carrying wide legal authority to act for the company and entered in the commercial register. The holder signs ppa. before their name. It is an advancement expressed as legal capacity rather than as a place on an organisation chart.
The architects’ fee scale
Die HOAI. Until 2019, German law set both minimum and maximum fees for architects and engineers. Charging below the minimum was not permitted. The justification, stated by the professional chambers, was that binding rates protect planners and clients from ruinous price competition that would endanger quality and safety.
The European Court of Justice struck the binding rates down on 4 July 2019, holding that they obstructed price competition contrary to the Services Directive. Germany had to be told by a foreign court that price is something to compete on.
Setting the guidelines
The German Basic Law gives the Chancellor Richtlinienkompetenz — authority to determine the general guidelines of policy. The constitution allocates the power to set the framework as a named competence, distinct from the power to decide within it.
The conduct of a proof
Proof-leading. German separates the Beweis, the proof, from the Beweisführung, the conducting of it.
You can be right and have your Beweisführung attacked. The two are assessed separately, and the second is where the argument usually happens.
The works agreement
A Betriebsvereinbarung between employer and works council binds both and governs how work is organised. Negotiating one is a genuine contest, and its terms determine daily working life more directly than most management decisions.
The duty to give reasons
Begründungspflicht. German courts and authorities are under a duty to give reasons. A judgment carries a Begründung — a grounding — as a mandatory part of the document, not a courtesy.
A decision without adequate reasons is defective as a decision, regardless of whether the outcome was right.
The reasoning is not an explanation of the ruling. It is part of it.
The rules of procedure
German bodies from the Bundestag to a works council operate under a written Verfahrensordnung governing who may put items on the agenda, in what order, and how a decision is taken. Control of the rules of procedure is understood as control of what can be decided.
Compliance
An American corporate function with real authority in regulated industries, and a defensive posture nearly everywhere else. It is described as a check on the business rather than as part of it, and the phrasing gives away where the centre of gravity sits.