Federal Constitutional Court

Germany’s independent constitutional court reviews whether public authority complies with the Basic Law. It decides constitutional complaints and disputes among federal institutions.

Constitutional complaint: A legal remedy allowing individuals to claim that public authority violated their fundamental rights. Individuals may bring one against acts of German public authority after exhausting ordinary legal remedies.
Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany: Germany’s constitution, adopted in 1949, establishing state institutions and protecting fundamental rights. It is the constitutional standard the Court interprets and enforces.
Lüth judgment: A 1958 Federal Constitutional Court decision holding that fundamental rights influence private law through its interpretation. It established the idea that constitutional rights shape the entire legal order, not only state action.
Federal Court of Justice of Germany: Germany’s highest court for ordinary civil and criminal jurisdiction. Unlike the Federal Constitutional Court, it reviews ordinary legal disputes rather than constitutional questions as its primary task.
Abstract judicial review: Review of a law’s constitutionality without requiring a specific case or individual injury. The Court can examine federal or state legislation on application by authorized political institutions.
Federal Constitutional Court Act: The German statute governing the organization, jurisdiction, and procedure of the Federal Constitutional Court. It supplies procedural rules that supplement the Court’s constitutional mandate.
Census Act judgment: A 1983 decision recognizing a constitutional right to informational self-determination. The ruling made privacy protections central to constitutional review of state data collection.
Federal Administrative Court of Germany: Germany’s highest court for disputes within the administrative court system. It reviews administrative-law cases, while constitutional review belongs to the separate constitutional court.
Concrete judicial review: A procedure in which a court refers a law to a constitutional court because its validity matters to a case. Ordinary German courts must refer laws they consider unconstitutional rather than set them aside themselves.
Federalism in Germany: Germany’s system of government divides authority between the federal government and sixteen states. Many of the Court’s disputes concern how the Basic Law divides power between these levels.

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