German law

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major reference
- In civil law: The German system
  Roman law, as embodied in the Corpus Juris Civilis, was “received” in Germany from the 15th century onward, and with this reception came a legal profession and a system of law developed by professionals (Juristenrecht). Roman law provided the theoretical basis for legal…
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administrative law
- In administrative law: The need for legal safeguards over public administration
  …in the Federal Republic of Germany (1949–90), however, and efforts were made to reduce the area in which the executive was free to act outside administrative law.
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- In administrative law: The German system
  Germany traditionally has had no council of state, but it does have a fully articulated system of special administrative courts. In the states, or Länder, there are lower administrative courts and superior administrative courts, and for the federation there is the Federal Administrative…
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arson
- In arson
  , Germany and some U.S. states) also impose a higher penalty for arson committed for the purpose of concealing or destroying evidence of another crime.
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comparative law
- In comparative law: 19th-century beginnings
  Legal periodicals were founded in Germany in 1829 and in France in 1834 to further a systematic study of foreign law. In France, the civil and mercantile laws of modern states were translated with “concordances” referring to the corresponding provisions of the French codes; and in England in 1850–52, Leone…
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conflict of laws
- In conflict of laws: Diversity of legal systems
  In German law, for example, the Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch) prescribes a subjective approach toward defining a merchant: it depends on the person and the purpose and manner of his actions. The French Code de Commerce adopts an objective approach: it is the particular transaction that determines…
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criminal law
- In criminal law: Principles of criminal law
  …can be seen in the German criminal code of 1998, which admonished the courts that the “effects which the punishment will be expected to have on the perpetrator’s future life in society shall be considered.” In the United States a Model Penal Code proposed by the American Law Institute in…
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environmental law
- In environmental law: Historical development
  In Germany, for example, public attitudes toward environmental protection changed dramatically in the early 1980s, when it became known that many German forests were being destroyed by acid rain. The environmentalist German Green Party, founded in 1980, won representation in the Bundestag (national parliament) for the…
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hate crimes
- In hate crime
  …directed at minority groups, and Germany has forbidden public incitement and the instigation of racial hatred, including the distribution of Nazi propaganda or literature liable to corrupt the youth. Most legislation outside the United States, however, has taken a narrow view of hate crime, focusing primarily on racial, ethnic, and…
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juvenile justice
- In juvenile justice: Continental Europe
  …was not until 1923 that Germany established a separate system of juvenile courts.
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military law
- In court-martial
  Germany is a notable exception, delegating the trial and punishment of military personnel to the civilian courts, except for the most petty of offenses.
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model for Japanese law
- In Japanese law
  …of continental Europe, especially the German. The drafters of the Japanese Civil Code (q.v.) of 1896 surveyed many legal systems, including the French, Swiss, and common laws, taking something from each. Their final product is, however, best characterized as following the first draft of the German Civil Code. In its…
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riot
- In riot
  In Germany riot is limited to an offense against public authority, and lesser acts of group violence are termed breaches of the public peace. For a disturbance to constitute a riot, an official engaged in the exercise of his duties must be resisted, assaulted, or threatened.…
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statute of limitations
- In statute of limitations
  For example, in Germany there is a general 30-year limitation on civil actions, but in some specific actions (e.g., tort and interest claims) the period may be only 2 or 3 years.
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business law

bankruptcy law
- In bankruptcy: Persons subject to judicial liquidation of their estates
  The German act and, following its example, the Austrian and Japanese acts extend bankruptcy proceedings to all natural and legal persons, whether or not they are engaged in commerce and without differentiating between petitions by the bankrupt himself or by creditors. In the United States, individuals,…
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business organization
- In business organization: Limited-liability companies, or corporations
  In France, Germany, and Italy and the other countries subject to a civil-law system, a notarized copy of the constitution is filed at the local commercial tribunal, and proof is tendered that the first members of the company have subscribed the whole or a prescribed fraction of…
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commercial law
- In commercial transaction
  In Germany, similarly, the general rules on consumer sales are in part superseded by special rules on commercial sales. A commercial transaction thus results in a number of specific legal consequences that differ from those of ordinary consumer transactions. Such a special commercial regime exists usually…
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contract law
- In contract: Offer and acceptance
  Thus, in German law an offer cannot be withdrawn by an offeror until the time stipulated in the offer or, if no time is stipulated, until a reasonable time has passed, but this rule yields to a statement in the offer to the effect that it shall…
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labour law
- In labour law: Historical development of labour law
  …workers’ compensation were pioneered by Germany in 1883 and 1884, and compulsory arbitration in industrial disputes was introduced in New Zealand in the 1890s. The progress of labour legislation outside western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand was slow until after World War I. The more-industrialized states of the United States…
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family law

inheritance and succession
- In inheritance: Historical development
  In France and Germany the will of the Roman pattern was fully recognized in the late 15th century. Just about that time, however, the enfeoffment to uses, which had been popular in England, was abolished by Henry VIII’s Statute of Uses in 1535. The King wished to restore…
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- In inheritance: Divided or undivided inheritance
  …certain countries, especially Austria and Germany, the possibility of entail lingered on until World War I. A new argument came to be used, however, in favour of unpartitioned inheritance of land in the 19th century. First in France and then in central Europe and Scandinavia, the argument was put forward…
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- In inheritance: Invalid wills
  …under the system of the German civil code, a disposition is irrevocable if it is expressed in a hereditary pact (Erbvertrag) made with a beneficiary or even with a third person. In Anglo-American law the will remains revocable even if the testator has promised that he will not revoke it;…
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- In inheritance: Transfer in civil law
  …correctly or, as under the German system, by handing over the estate to a judicially appointed administrator.
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morganatic marriage
- In morganatic marriage
  …had a widespread application in German law. It required that parties to many sorts of transaction be of the same standing or estate, but it could not be an impediment to marriage in the law of the church.
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judiciary

constitutional law
- In constitutional law: Applications of judicial review
  …The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, judging on the basis of constitutional provisions that forbid speech and associations directed at impairing the liberal-democratic foundations of the state, has dissolved neo-Nazi and other parties without even considering the element of actual “danger.” On the same basis it has upheld laws excluding…
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ecclesiastical court
- In ecclesiastical court
  In Catholic parts of Germany, for example, marriage and divorce remained within the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts until the German Civil Code came into force in 1900.
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Federal Constitutional Court
- In Federal Constitutional Court
  Germany, special court for the review of judicial and administrative decisions and legislation to determine whether they are in accord with the Basic Law (constitution) of the country. Although all German courts are empowered to review the constitutionality of governmental action within their jurisdiction, the…
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injunction
- In injunction
  …been used infrequently, except in Germany, where injunctions are used to protect against interference with property and to supplement the very weak slander laws.
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inquisitorial procedure
- In inquisitorial procedure
  In Germany the prosecution participates in the investigation; while in France the prosecution presents its recommendations only at the end of the hearing. In both France and Germany the investigating magistrate will recommend a trial only if he is sure that there is sufficient evidence of…
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jurisdiction
- In competence and jurisdiction
  …to be exercised; and in Germany and Austria, by contrast, the location of property often determines jurisdiction.
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petit jury
- In petit jury
  Germany and France have a mixed tribunal of judges and jurors in criminal cases, and Japan abolished its petit jury in 1943 after a brief experimental period for civil cases.
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procedural law
- In procedural law: Civil-law codifications
  …including Italy in 1865 and Germany in 1877. They usually retained large elements of the Roman-canonical or French procedure and were often cumbersome and slow. Austria broke new ground in its Code of Civil Procedure of 1895, which adopted comprehensively the principle of oral presentation: only matters presented orally in…
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- In procedural law: Drafting the judgment
  In Germany and Austria it is narrative in nature; in France it is traditionally cast in the form of one long sentence consisting of a syllogism using the facts and the applicable law as premises.
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- In procedural law: Civil law
  , Germany) it is possible to demand a new trial in a higher court if the original trial was held by a single judge. In other cases, appellate courts review only matters of substantive or procedural law, including the question of whether the lower court did…
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structure
- In court: Courts in federal systems
  Germany is also a federal republic, dividing power between the federal and state systems. At the national level, there are five supreme courts and one constitutional court. The supreme courts represent separate jurisdictions (civil and criminal, general administrative, employment and trade-union disputes, social policy, and…
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legal profession

In lawyer
In Germany the chief distinction is between lawyers and notaries. The German attorney, however, plays an even smaller courtroom role than the French avocat, largely because presentations on points of law are limited, and litigation is often left to junior partners. Attorneys are often restricted to…
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assessor
- In assessor
  In Germany there are Schöffen (lay jurists), who sit in groups of two at criminal cases. In specialized courts, such as labour courts, there are lay assessors who are representatives of the employers and employees. There are also lay assessors in England and the United States…
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assigned counsel
- In assigned counsel
  In Germany, where the Federal Constitutional Court has upheld the right of the poor to counsel in civil actions, the compensation is adequate to be attractive to experienced attorneys. Lawyers are appointed by the court and paid by the government.
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prosecutor
- In prosecutor
  …countries, including France, Japan, and Germany, the prosecutors are part of a career civil service. They are appointed and dismissed by the ministry of justice and generally subject to its control. In Japan, however, they may be dismissed only for reasons of health or after disciplinary proceedings.
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Schöffe
- In Schöffe
  Germany, a lay jurist or assessor assigned primarily to a lower criminal court to make decisions both on points of law and on fact jointly with professional jurists. A Schöffe may also sit on a higher court.
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property law

In property law: Marxism, liberalism, and the law
…of systematic jurists prominent in Germany, took the agglomerative tendency inherent in the Roman conception of property and developed it to a point that most modern commentators find goes far beyond what the Roman sources themselves suggest. Their ideas were embodied in the German Civil Code (effective 1900) and had…
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In property law: Protection of the family against intentional disinheritance
The German system is more like the Anglo-American.
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movable and immovable
- In movable and immovable
  In German law, the distinction is somewhat clearer: immovables are tracts of land and their component parts; movables are everything else. In the Anglo-American common-law system, there exists a similar distinction between real (immovable) and personal (movable) property.
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torts

In tort
Germans, for example, talk of unlawful acts, and French-inspired systems use interchangeably the terms délits (and quasi-délits) and extra-contractual civil responsibility. Despite differences of terminology, however, this area of the law is primarily concerned with liability for behaviour that the legal order regards as socially…
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defamation
- In defamation
  Modern German defamation is similar but generally allows truth as a defense. In Italy, truth seldom excuses defamation, which is criminally punishable there. In the United States, a charge of defamation of a public figure can be sustained only if the offending statement was made with…
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economic loss
- In tort: Negligently inflicted pure economic loss
  Common-law and German-inspired systems have here faced enormous difficulties, partly because the courts’ reasoning seems to be motivated by administrative considerations: if one such claim is accepted, many others will follow. Another difficulty stems from the fact that many of these cases sit uncomfortably on the traditional…
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negligence
- In negligence
  Germanic and French law early maintained very stringent liability for accidents and still do. Negligence became a basis of liability in English law only in 1825.
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strict liability
- In tort: Strict liability statutes
  The German statutes, however, deserve special attention. First, in Germany strict liability has been introduced only by specific enactments, while the Civil Code, minor exceptions apart, remains faithful to the fault principle. Moreover, such is the monopoly of the legislator in this area that the courts…
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