Article 33(2) of the German Basic Law reads: Jeder Deutsche hat nach seiner Eignung, Befähigung und fachlichen Leistung gleichen Zugang zu jedem öffentlichen Amte. Every German has equal access to every public office according to aptitude, qualification and professional performance. The constitution names three criteria for a public appointment. Who the candidate knows is not one of them.
law
No Judge in His Own Case
Section 41 of the German Code of Civil Procedure excludes a judge from a case kraft Gesetzes, by operation of law, when the judge is a party to it. The same rule applies when the case involves the judge’s spouse or close relatives. The judge does not decide whether to step aside. The law has already decided. German literature has a famous comedy on the opposite case. In Kleist’s Der zerbrochne Krug, the village judge Adam must try a case that he caused himself.
A President Under Investigation
On February 16, 2012, the public prosecutor in Hanover asked for the immunity of Federal President Christian Wulff to be lifted. The suspicion was Vorteilsannahme, accepting benefits in office. Wulff resigned the next day. The Hanover regional court acquitted him on February 27, 2014.
The Club President in Prison
Uli Hoeneß was president of FC Bayern Munich, the most successful club in German football. In March 2014 he stood trial for tax evasion of 28.5 million euros. The court sentenced him to three years and six months. He stepped down as club president in March 2014. He began his prison sentence on June 2, 2014.
The Debt Brake Ruling
On November 15, 2023, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled on the Second Supplementary Budget Act 2021. The act had moved 60 billion euros of unused borrowing authority into a climate fund. The court declared the act unvereinbar und nichtig, incompatible with the Basic Law and void. The court measured the act against the Schuldenbremse, the debt brake written into the constitution.
The Law Exam
In Lower Saxony’s second state exam in law, each written paper carries a code number instead of a name. A first examiner and a second examiner grade it. A federal ordinance defines the grades for the law exams in words. Befriedigend is a performance that meets average requirements in every respect. Mangelhaft is a performance that is, on the whole, no longer usable. Ungenügend is a performance that is completely unusable. In 2018, 27.9 percent of candidates across Germany failed the state part of the first exam.
Places to Study Medicine
On December 19, 2017, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled on how places to study medicine are given out. The rules must in principle follow dem Kriterium der Eignung, the criterion of aptitude. The court accepted the Abitur grade as a measure of aptitude. It struck down rules that put a student’s preferred location ahead of grades. It also struck down unlimited waiting time, and it gave the legislators until December 31, 2019, to write new rules.
Obedience to the Law
Section 11 of the Soldiers Act requires soldiers to obey their superiors. It then adds: Ein Befehl darf nicht befolgt werden, wenn dadurch eine Straftat begangen würde. An order must not be obeyed if obeying it would commit a crime. Civil servants carry die volle persönliche Verantwortung, full personal responsibility, for the lawfulness of their official acts. If they have doubts about an instruction, they must raise them with their superior, and then with the next level up. They can ask for the confirmation in writing. Once the instruction is confirmed, they must carry it out, and they are released from their own responsibility. This does not apply if the act violates human dignity, or if it is a criminal or administrative offense that the civil servant can recognize as such.
The judge must point it out
Under § 139 of the German Code of Civil Procedure, the judge must, where necessary, discuss the facts and the law of a case with the parties and ask them questions. The second paragraph goes further. The court may not base its decision on a point that a party has clearly overlooked or considered unimportant. First it must point the problem out and give the party a chance to respond.
The Apprentice’s Record Book
Every apprentice in a recognized training occupation must keep a written or electronic training record, the Ausbildungsnachweis. Most people call it the Berichtsheft. The duty is set out in § 13 of the Vocational Training Act. Under § 43, an apprentice is admitted to the final examination only after presenting the record. The craft tradition also gave German the word Meisterstück, master’s piece. It first meant the work a journeyman made for the master examination. Today it also means a masterly achievement in any field.