German Legal Research Guide

German Legal System and Laws provides a comprehensive introduction to the German legal system and the core areas of substantive law. Constitutional law is the foundation of German law and this area has been given fuller consideration in this fourth edition. The constitutional organs of state, basic rights and administrative law are all thoroughly explained. The text has been fully amended and updated with regard to a wealth of legislation and case law which has radically altered the course of German law with considerable attention being given to the development of private law. Also included are expanded and updated extracts from the Grundgesetz and fully revised glossaries of German legal terms.

This is an established, reliable, and practical resource/learning tool designed to give native English speakers a clear and authoritative guide to the German legal system and its special language. Now in its sixth edition, the book has been fully revised and updated, and it includes a full suite of appendices, a list of abbreviations, a vocabulary of selected German and Latin words and phrases, a table of cases. and a paragraph register. It offers a broad and systematic survey of some of the main areas of German public and private law. It is also supported by detailed cross-referenced notes, an extensive specialized vocabulary, a bibliography, and a paragraph register. The meanings of innumerable German legal expressions and principles are clarified. In addition, attention is occasionally drawn to equivalent concepts and norms found in English law.

With fifteen lucid chapters written by academic expects in their respective fields of law, as well as detailed bibliographies, this is the ideal starting point for research whenever a question of German law must be answered. The authors clearly explain the legal concepts, customs, and rules arising from such basic elements as the following: characteristic problems of Germany legal unity; principles and practices of constitutional law; administrative law and procedure; the German Commercial Code; formation and conduct of corporations and partnerships; contracts; tort liability; property rights; family law; succession and inheritance; labor and employment; issues of private international law; courts and civil procedure; the penal code and criminal procedure.

The main principles and structures of a legal system are most easily to grasp if seen in a complete overview of all various parts. This book addresses the most important subjects for understanding and handling of the German law. Law students at the beginning of their studies, foreign students and practitioners as well as interested lays will find this monograph to give an overview and first information about the German legal system. Special regard is given to the effects of the European legal development on the German law. The author is professor for public law at the University of Trier and director of the Institute for European Constitutional Law.

This book is a translation of Reinhold Zippelius’ Juristische Methodenlehre, (10th ed. 2006). The approach of the original German-language volume is to engage civil law students in the processes by which one learns the law and reasons in the law—thus, the title of Zippelius’ work in English could easily be “Thinking Like a German Lawyer.” This volume was chosen because of its wide influence in Germany and the fact that it provides not only intellectual insight in comparative legal systems, but also equips the practitioner to understand how the civil lawyer sitting across the table understands law—the insider comparativism that is the basis for the entire series.

The Legal System of Germany presents to the reader the main features of the history of its legal system, its sources of law, its constitutional framework, its legal actors, its criminal law, its law of persons, family law, property law, law of contract, law on delictual liability, quasi-contracts, business entities, and labor-employment law.

This title covers both domestic and international arbitration in all its stages. The work details the legal framework for German-related arbitration and provides practical guidance on the appropriate choices, with a specific focus on particularities of German law and practice. It contains a high level of analysis whilst maintaining a practical approach and structure mirroring the typical course of arbitral proceedings. The book navigates along the life cycle of an arbitration, commencing with the arbitration agreement, continuing with the arbitral tribunal, the arbitral proceedings and interim relief, and concluding with the arbitral award including its recognition and enforcement. At each stage, the work combines exhaustive legal analysis, clear and concise presentation, and a practical and accessible approach.

This work by a highly experienced partner in the leading international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer provides a concise, practical analysis of current law and practice relating to mergers and acquisitions of public and private companies in Germany. The book offers a clear explanation of each step in the acquisition process from the perspectives of both the purchaser and the seller. Key areas covered include: structuring the transaction; due diligence; contractual protection; consideration; and the impact of applicable company, competition, tax, intellectual property, environmental and data protection law on the acquisition process.

This revised and fully up-to-date English translation of the 7th edition of the Casebook Verfassungsrecht includes a new outline of the German constitution, the BVerfG Court, and its jurisprudence. It condenses more than six decades of constitutional jurisprudence in order to familiarize readers with the style, technique, and language of the Court. As well as an analysis of the general principles of German constitutional law, the book covers the salient articles of the German Constitution and offers relevant extracts of the Court's most important decisions on the provisions of the Basic Law. It provides notes and discussions of landmark cases to illustrate their legal and historical context and give the reader a clear understanding of the principles governing German constitutional law.

While the availability and efficacy of arbitration in London, Paris and New York is well known, and the popularity of the Swiss system widely accepted, less is known about the mechanisms available for arbitrating international disputes in Germany. In fact, Germany boasts a well-developed system of arbitration which is streamlined, efficient and inexpensive, but which has been hitherto overlooked in favour of other jurisdictions. This new work by experienced German arbitrators, explains in detail the workings of the German system for international arbitration – the basis of its code, its institutional architecture and its procedural features. Thus this work presents, for the first time, the full workings of the German system to an English-speaking audience.

This new, substantially rewritten and systematically updated fifth edition of the work contains over 95 leading judgments, most translated in their entirety, along with references to over 2,000 other decisions from Germany and the common law world. While the book remains an ideal tool for teaching comparative torts and comparative methodology, the fact that it has been extensively rewritten makes it an indispensable source of inspiration for those with a professional interest in tort litigation and tort law reform. This edition has paid particular attention to liability for internet activity, medical liability and the protection of personality rights and private life.

This handbook provides attorneys worldwide both the fundamental framework and practical pointers for navigating Germany’s patent system. The book opens with an overview of the judicial system, along with a background on patent prosecution and opposition proceedings in the European Patent Office. The handbook then explains key aspects of patent litigation in Germany, including: Trial procedure; Claim construction; Damages; Nullity (invalidity) proceedings; Discovery; Customs enforcement actions; Employment law regarding inventions; and Budgeting of patent cases. The book also provides forms and legislative materials, including translations (unofficial) of key intellectual property provisions, such as of the German Patent Act, Utility Model Act and the Act on Employee’s Inventions. Authored by active patent litigators in Germany and the United States, this handbook explains the German system in the context of U.S. proceedings, and concludes with a comparison of key provisions of the U.S. and German patent systems.

The book provides an outline of the principles of German criminal law, mainly the so-called “General Part” (e.g. actus reus, mens rea, defences, participation) and the core offence categories (homicide, offences against property, sexual offences). It sets out the principles, their development under the influence of academic writing and judicial decisions. The book is not meant as a textbook of German criminal law, but is a selection of interrelated in-depth essays on the central problems. Wherever it is apposite and feasible, comparison is offered to the approaches of English criminal law and the legal systems of other common and civil law countries in order to allow common lawyers to draw the pertinent parallels to their own jurisdictions.

The new edition of this seminal text outlines the fundamental aspects of the German approach to criminal procedure. It explores a wide range of issues from setting out the basic procedural principles to presenting the main players in the criminal justice system, pre-trial investigations, the path from indictment to trial judgment, rules of evidence, sentencing, and appeals and post-conviction review. As far as it is useful for an introductory text, the differences between proceedings against adults and juveniles are highlighted. The theoretical discussion of decision-making and style of judgment writing is supported by practical insights through specimen translations of an indictment, a trial judgment and an appellate judgment by the Federal Court of Justice.

Michael Stolleis’s Public Law in Germany: A Historical Introduction from the 16th to the 21st Century, expertly translated by Thomas Dunlap, provides an account of the fundamental developments in public law that situates current debates in the German Federal Constitutional Court as well as the role of the nation-state in Europe more broadly. It further examines the role of fundamental rights through the lens of Germany's special administrative courts and discusses their important role in the advancement of German law. Written with students in mind, the book distils Stolleis’s masterful four-volume History of Public Law in Germany, the third volume of which (1914-1945) was published by Oxford University Press in 2004. It is an invaluable companion to the understanding of German public law more generally.