The Federal Constitutional Court : Germany

The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe is the guardian of the Basic Law. It rules, for instance, on disputes between the Federal Government and the federal states or between individual federal institutions. Only this court has the power to declare that a party constitutes a threat to freedom and democracy and is therefore unconstitutional, in which case it orders that party’s dissolution. It scrutinizes federal and state laws as to their conformity with the Basic Law. If it rules that a law is unconstitutional, that law may no longer be applied. The Court acts in such cases only if called upon by certain authorities, such as the Federal Government, the state governments, at least one third of the members of the Bundestag, or the lower courts.

In addition, anyone has the right to file a constitutional complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court if he feels his basic rights have been violated by public authority. Before doing so, however, he must as a rule have exhausted all other legal remedies. So far the Court has passed judgment in more than 112,400 cases. Approximately 107,900 dealt with constitutional complaints, but only about 2,850 of these were successful. Often matters of great domestic or international significance are dealt with, for instance whether the involvement of German forces in missions of the United Nations is compatible with the Basic Law. Federal Governments of all political persuasions have had to submit to decisions of the judges in Karlsruhe. The Court has repeatedly stressed, however, that it does not see its task as requiring institutions of the state to follow a specific political course. The Federal Constitutional Court consists of two panels, each with eight judges; half of them are elected by the Bundestag and half by the Bundesrat. The judges serve for twelve years and may not be reelected.