Social Justice : Germany

The Basic Law prescribes the development of the social-state order, hence much greater consideration is now given to the people’s social needs than in former times. In the years since the creation of the Federal Republic, a whole range of special labor and social legislation has been enacted to provide the citizen with various financial benefits in the event of sickness, accident, invalidity and unemployment, as well as after retirement.

Labor law is a good example of how the social-state principle has been put into effect. Originally, these matters were only briefly dealt with under the heading of “service contracts” in the Civil Code. Today, labor legislation embraces an abundance of laws and collective agreements but is also largely based on case law. It includes in particular the Collective Wage Agreements Act, the Protection against Dismissal Act, the Act on the Constitution of Business and Industrial Enterprises (Works Constitution Act), as well as the various laws on codetermination and the Labor Courts Act.