: 
By Rita Exter and Martina Kammer
Published February 2008
Rita Exter is the head of the
library at the Düsseldorf office of Linklaters.
Martina Kammer is the
knowhow and information manager for Germany at the same firm.
1. General Introduction to the German Legal System
2. The Legislative Process and Its Sources
2.1 Federal Legislative Process
2.2 The State Legislative Process
3.1 Federal Statutes and Ordinances
3.2 International and EU Law
3.3 State Laws and Subordinate Legislation
3.4 Federal Administrative Rules and Regulations
3.5 State Administrative Rules and Regulations
4. Court Practice and Court Decisions
5.1 Commentaries
5.2 Handbooks
5.3 Form Books and Standard Contracts
5.4 Legal Journals, Essays and Article Literature
5.5 Major Law Dictionaries
6. Citations to German Legal Sources
7. Translations of German Legal Resources into English
8. Overview of Fee-based Legal Databases
8.1 juris
8.2 beck-online
8.3 LexisNexis Recht
8.4 Legios
9. Legal Online News and Current Awareness Services
9.1 RSS Feeds
9.2 Electronic Newsletters, Newstickers, Blogs and Podcasts
8.1 Government
8.2 Courts
8.3 Major Legal Publishers
8.4 University and Central Libraries
8.5 Legal Internet Projects
8.6 Major Professional Organizations
Starting with a brief introduction to the German legal system and legal tradition, this article looks at legal research from a practitioner's point of view and provides an overview of the major sources for German legal research with a focus on business and commercial law, both print and online. Due to the wealth of German legal literature it presents but a selection of the most essential sources and does not make a claim to comprehensive portrayal or completeness. Most of the materials mentioned here are in German, as any substantive law research will have to be conducted in the vernacular. To assist the foreign researcher though, references have been included to translations of German laws and cases as well as select literature and Web sites on German law in English. Kommentare (commentaries) and Festschriften as forms of publication specific to German legal research are highlighted as is the way German case law is published and the issues this involves. Extensive coverage is given to legal databases and their growing importance to the researcher.
It will become clear that, while there is a wide variety of sources available, materials have not always been published in a consistent manner. Hence, researchers will find it difficult at times to locate certain items, notably when it comes to court decisions or administrative regulations.
Not included here are business information sources such as commercial and company registers etc which supplement research in business and commercial law.
Since the 1990s the number of legal resources accessible electronically or online has grown considerably. This includes both commercial, fee-based services as well as sites that are available for free. Special mention should be made of legal resources offered on government websites and on the homepages of major legal publishers. A number of materials are made available through collaborative efforts by the government and database providers, or between several publishers. Many sources are offered under license by more than one provider. The growing market with a wide range of products that partly overlap, and shifting provider collaborations sometimes make it hard for the legal researcher to keep track. It needs to be said, however, that with Juris, Beck-online, LexisNexis and Legios there are four strong contenders in the market who bundle a multitude of sources pivotal in conducting legal research.
At the same time, in spite of the tremendous growth in the electronic product area, legal print literature upholds its importance.
1. General Introduction to the German Legal System
Germany has a federal system of government built on democratic principles, which is made up of 16 Länder (federal states), and is a member of the European Union, the association of a growing number of European states. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, which is known as the Basic Law (Grundgesetz) lies at the foundation of all other legislation. The highest legislative bodies are the Bundestag and the Bundesrat as the two chambers of parliament. The Federal Constitutional Court is the highest body of the judiciary, and the Federal President and Federal Government are the highest bodies of the state executive. This structure is mirrored at the level of the states with state parliaments, the state constitutional courts, and state governors and governments.
German law is governed by the federal nature of the Federal Republic of Germany and is thus not dissimilar to legal systems such as the ones in the United States or Australia. However, in contrast to these jurisdictions, the federal principle is not confined to national borders, i.e. the relations among the individual states and their relations towards the Federation. It extends to, and is crucially influenced by, Germany’s membership of the European Union, which by now affords an extensive body of legislation that is binding on its individual member states directly or needs to be implemented in national law. There are basic treaties, regulations and directives. Bilateral and multilateral agreements between EU member states are now mostly replaced by EU treaties.
Germany is a civil law jurisdiction. The law is divided into three major areas: private law, public law and criminal law.
The sources of the law in Germany comprise statutory law as the central and primary source which includes the constitution, statutes and ordinances, regulations, decrees and charters. Court decisions are another source. However, in contrast to jurisdictions such as the UK or the US they do not have a precedent function in that courts are not bound to follow the decisions of higher courts in a previous case. Courts are bound by the law rather than by precedents. Custom is generally recognized to be yet another source of the law as are interpretations of the law.
The German legal tradition and culture go back to the law of the Roman Empire, which made a strong impact on its emergence and development. German law is codified law. The idea of codification dates back to the period of European Enlightenment during the 17th and 18th centuries and, propelled by the aspirations for unification during the 19th century, resulted in the creation of law codes for the major areas of the law.1 The development of the law in Germany must also be seen in the context of similar developments in other parts of continental Europe. There has always been strong mutual influence and exchange, which is now culminating in the rapprochement of legal systems as mentioned above.
Codification was first promoted by the enlightened rulers of Prussia and Austria (Prussia's Allgemeines Landesrecht of 1794 and Austria's Allgemeines Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch) as a means for people to know their rights and duties. Another strong impetus emanated from the adoption in 1804 of the Code Napoleon.
By the time of the establishment of the German Reich in 1871 there were only two states, Prussia and Saxony, which had codified their private law. The other German territories were governed by different types of law from ius commune to Austrian and Danish law. With the beginning of industrialization and the need for open markets the unification of the law became an important issue. A draft of a general German commercial code had been adopted by most of the states in the Deutscher Bund (German Union) by 1866. Once the German Reich had been founded, the development of a uniform law code for the whole of Germany took on added importance. In the years following the founding of the German Reich a number of laws were adopted in 1879 that set the scene for a common civil code: The Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz (court statutes), Konkursordnung (insolvency code), Zivilprozessordnung (code of civil procedure), and the Strafprozessordnung (code of criminal procedure), which have, with some amendments, retained their validity to date. With a procedural framework in place, work on a uniform civil code was begun, which was to take 26 years from the initial drafting until it took force on January 1, 1900. The Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch) came into force on the same date. The Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch), which comprehensively covers the field of private law, is the mainstay of the German civil-law system. The result of fine 19th century scholarship, it is written in a highly technical language and thus not easily accessible. It has been lauded for its doctrinal refinement and conceptual abstraction that leaves room for interpretation, but is not addressed to the lay person. A century after its adoption its stipulations are still largely the same, the most significant amendments having been made to the book on family law, which has seen major change,2 and the book on the law of obligations, major parts of which have been revised by the 2001 reform of the law of obligations. The German Civil Code has also served as a model for other countries in developing their civil law codifications. Among them are Japan and Greece.
Nazi rule during the period from 1933 through 1945 has left deep imprints on the development of the law in Germany after World War II. Legislative thinking has been guided by the idea of preventing any such catastrophe from ever happening again.
Another important aspect to be considered is the reunification on October 3, 1990 of the Federal Republic of Germany and the former German Democratic Republic. The legal systems had completely grown apart during the years of division. During the years since 1990 a legal system modeled on the one in the old Federal Republic has been set up in the eastern part of Germany as well. Under the Unification Treaty, certain parts of East German law have continued to retain their validity. Additional laws and regulations had to be enacted in various different fields of law to cover the specific situation that had arisen out of the joining of two completely different systems.
Select Literature:
· Danner, Richard A./Bernal, Marie-Louise H. Introduction to Foreign Legal Systems. New York: Oceana Publications, 1994.
· Ebke, Werner F./Finkin, Matthew W. Introduction to German Law. The Hague: Kluwer, 1996.
· Foster, Nigel, G./Sule, Satish, German Legal System and Law. 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
· Modern Legal Systems Encyclopedia. Volume Three. Buffalo, NY: William S. Hein & Co., 1990.
· Reimann, Matthias/Zekoll, Joachim (eds). Introduction to German Law. 2nd edition. München: C H Beck, 2005.
· Reynolds, Thomas H./Flores, Arturo A. Foreign Law: Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation in Jurisdictions of the World. Volume II - Western and Eastern Europe. Littleton: F.B. Rothman, 1989-.
· Robbers, Gerhard. An Introduction to German Law. 4th edition. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2006.
· Robbers, Gerhard. Einführung in das deutsche Recht. 4th edition. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2006.
2. The Legislative Process and Its Sources
2.1 Federal Legislative Process and Session Laws
The federal legislative process may involve any of the following bodies: The Bundestag (German parliament) as the elected representative body of the people, the Bundesrat as the representative body of the states, the federal government and the parliamentary committees. Legislative initiative may emanate from the government, members of Parliament (a parliamentary group, party or other group) or the Bundesrat. There is legislation that requires approval from the Bundesrat, e.g., legislation amending the Constitution or touching on the foundations of the federation, and there is simple legislation that does not require such Bundesrat approval. Once a bill has been passed, it is countersigned by the government minister in charge and the Federal Chancellor, executed by the Federal President and promulgated in the Bundesgesetzblatt (Federal Law Gazette). Unless otherwise stipulated, it will enter into force on the 14th day after publication in the Federal Law Gazette. Ordinances are passed by the Executive, i.e. the federal government or federal ministers. Bundesrat approval is required if they affect the interests of the states. The legislative procedure on the federal level is explained in detail on the Web site of the German Bundestag.
Documents that are produced and published as part of the legislative process do not only comprise the texts of prospective new laws or statutory amendments. They also include the reasoning of the bodies initiating such legislation, which may be used as a source for construing the future law.
Important preliminary draft bills used to be accessible to a wider interested public only in print and by placing a request with the respective government ministry. Major legislative projects were published in journals. Now they have begun to be published on the home pages of the government ministries in charge of the legislative project or can be accessed through the link to legislative projects (Gesetzesvorhaben und Neuregelungen) on the home page of the German Federal Government.
The official legislative process is triggered by a bill being submitted by either the Bundesrat, the Federal Government or a parliamentary group within the Bundestag. This process, i.e. the passage of the bill through all chambers of parliament, is accompanied by a large number of documents. The full text of draft bills, complete with reasoning, and amendments proposed by the parliamentary committees is published in Bundestags-Drucksachen or Bundesrats-Drucksachen (Printed Matters of the Bundestag and Bundesrat), a serial publication of the Bundestag and Bundesrat, respectively. The debates of bills in the Bundestag and Bundesrat are recorded in the minutes of plenary sessions (Stenographische Berichte des Deutschen Bundestages and Stenographische Berichte des Deutschen Bundesrates, also called Plenarprotokolle). These sources are indexed in the Register zu den Verhandlungen des Deutschen Bundestags und des Bundesrats (Index to the Sessions of the German Bundestag and Bundesrat), a publication of the German Parliament’s department of documentation. It has appeared as a bound set at the end of each parliamentary term since 1949. Materials of parliamentary terms (starting from 1972) are also published in bound sets by Nomos and Bundesanzeiger publishers.
Much of this information is now available on the Internet through DIP (short for Dokumentations- und Informationssystem für Parlamentarische Vorgänge – Documentation and Information System for Parliamentary Activities), a gateway to parliamentary information set up by the German Bundestag. It provides free online access to legislative materials, including the full text of draft bills as published in the Bundestags-Drucksachen, and all other documents of the legislative history, with full texts of parliamentary printed matter, and links to the full text of Part I of the Bundesgesetzblatt (Federal Law Gazette starting from 1998). DIP also provides information on initiatives that require approval by the Bundesrat or, if applicable, on EU Directives that need to be implemented by a particular law, as well as the minutes of plenary sessions, activities of members of the Bundestag and Bundesrat, and information on parliamentary activities starting from the 8th parliamentary term (i.e. late 1976).
It should be noted that the content of DIP is accessed through two separate gateways with different search interfaces: one for the 8th-15th parliamentary terms and one for the 16th,, i.e. the current and future parliamentary terms. 16th term: subject index and three search interfaces (searchable by consultation processes, activities, and documents) / 8-15th term: variety of search interfaces graded by level of difficulty).
Alternatively, there is the Parlamentsspiegel parliamentary database, an initiative launched by the 16 German state parliaments, which covers the federal materials published in the Bundestags- and Bundesrats-Drucksachen for approximately the same period as DIP, as well as the legislative materials of the states (see below at 2.2). Minutes of plenary sessions of the Bundesrat are available from as early as the 1st parliamentary term. DIP provides access to some of the full text data from Parlamentsspiegel by linking to that information. In documenting printed matters at federal level, Parlamentsspiegel primarily covers Bundesrat materials, the reason being that the Bundesrat is the representation of Germany’s federal states. A list of the federal data it covers can be found here. Parlamentsspiegel is the source to use for federal law research before 2002. Research after that date should be conducted in DIP. Inquiries regarding federal legislative materials not published in DIP or Parlamentsspiegel (up to the 7th parliamentary term in 1976) can be directed to Sach-und Sprechregister des Deutschen Bundestages, the official documentation center of the German Parliament (phone no. +49-30-227 3 23 50/E-mail); materials in print and electronic formats can also be ordered from the document service of Bundesanzeiger Verlag, the Bonn-based official parliamentary and government publisher.
In 2007 juris, a partially government-owned legal database provider, in association with Bundesanzeiger publishers launched a fee-based Legislation Portal (Gesetzesportal). It provides in-depth coverage of the legislative process starting from the 15th parliamentary term.
2.2 The State Legislative Process
The documents created as part of the legislative process at the Länder or state levels are published in print format. Some states make legislative materials available on their internet homepages as well. Despite some major progress, a number of federal states still do not put these materials online, The ones available vary in content, scope and ease of searching. Given this situation, all the more importance attaches to the Parlamentsspiegel, which makes it its goal to build an integrated parliamentary information system. The Internet version was launched in 2000. It is based on the Parlamentsspiegel print version (1957-1994/95) which has been discontinued.
The printed matters of the federal states currently available are listed here. Two of the 16 states (Baden-Wurttemberg and Hesse) dropped out of the project in early 2004, which meant a substantial setback to the importance of this database as a comprehensive tool. An overview of internet homepages of the different federal states and the state materials accessible there can be found on the Parlamentsspiegel website.
If state legislative materials cannot be found either on the respective states’ homepages or in the Parlamentsspiegel database, they will have to be obtained directly, usually for a fee, from the respective departments of the state parliaments.
Select Literature and Databases:
· Bundestags-Drucksachen (BT-Dr. or BT-Drucks.). Bonn: Bundesanzeiger Verlag, 1949-
· Bundesrats-Drucksachen (BR-Dr. or BR-Drucks.). Bonn: Bundesanzeiger Verlag, 1949-
· Stenographische Berichte des Deutschen Bundestags. Bonn: Bundesanzeiger Verlag, 1949-
· Stenographische Berichte des Deutschen Bundesrats. Bonn: Bundesanzeiger Verlag, 1949-
· Register zu den Verhandlungen des Deutschen Bundestags. Bonn: Heger/Bundesanzeiger, 1949/1953-
· Register zu den Verhandlungen des Deutschen Bundesrats. Bonn: Heger/Bundesanzeiger, 1949/1952-
· Stand der Gesetzgebung des Bundes. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1972-
· DIP
3. Federal and State Laws
Germany’s federal system is reflected in the law. Legislative power is shared between the Federation and the Länder (states). When it comes to legal issues that need to be regulated uniformly for all states, exclusive legislative power rests with the Federation. This includes foreign affairs, defence, transportation, the legal protection of industrial property rights, copyright, post and telecommunications, etc. Concurrent legislation applies to fields of law which, although uniform regulation for the federation is required, allow for state legislation as well. State legislation is repealed, however, if a federal law exists or is enacted in the same respect (e.g., civil code, criminal law, business and labor law, certain aspects of tax law). Federal laws may be supplemented by state laws when additional legal issues need to be covered and require augmentation by state law. Framework legislation, i.e. general guiding directives, is provided by the federation for certain areas that will have to be fleshed out by state laws. This applies to higher education, the protection of nature and soil, the water balance, and urban planning.
Laws at federal and state levels are adopted through the official legislative process described above. The body of statutory materials also comprises ordinances (Rechtsverordnungen) issued by the Executive (the federal or state governments) on the basis of an enacted law, and municipal orders and ordinances adopted by the local authorities. Further, there are administrative rules and regulations issued by the Executive, which serve to interpret the law. As for the latter, we will consider here generally applicable administrative regulations by federal or state authorities that require publication.
3.1 Federal Statutes and Ordinances
3.1.1 Federal Law Gazette (Bundesgesetzblatt - BGBl)
The Federal Law Gazette (Bundesgesetzblatt), Parts I and II, is the official source of Germany’s valid laws, of most subordinate legislation and ordinances (Rechtsverordnungen), and of important notices. It is published in print and online by Bundesanzeiger publishers on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Justice (Bundesgesetzblatt - BGBl. Bonn: Bundesanzeiger, 1949-).
New federal laws and major ordinances and amendments thereof have appeared in Part I since 1949. Issues of the print version are published, as required, approximately 50 times per year.
Part II publishes the international agreements concluded by the Federal Republic of Germany, and national laws and orders adopted for their validation and enforcement (also see 3.2 below). The text is usually provided in German and in the official languages of the agreement.
A discontinued Part III of the Bundesgesetzblatt, which used to be published in looseleaf format, contains a consolidated compilation of Germany’s federal laws as amended at the time of publication between 1958 and 1969. Because of the complicated legal situation that had arisen after World War II with laws from the German Reich still in force, and new laws and decrees enacted by the Allied Powers and, later, the German parliament, the German legislators decided to review German laws and repeal obsolete statutes. The beginning and end of this process were marked by the adoption of two laws (Gesetz über die Sammlung des Bundesrechts of July 10, 1958 and Gesetz über den Abschluß der Sammlung des Bundesrechts of December 28, 1968). This compilation is still useful today in researching older versions of the law.
The Federal Law Gazette is available online in German through the following services:
Part I
· Bundesanzeiger: fee-based version with materials from 1949.
· Bundesanzeiger: free read-only version with materials from 1998 to date.
· Makrolog - Recht für Deutschland Permanent: fee-based service, complete coverage from the start of the print version (1949); click here for additional info in German.
· Makrolog - Recht für Deutschland Locator: free service after registration; searching and full-text access to records from 2003 to date, except for the issues of the last four weeks; click here for additional info in German.
· Parlamentsspiegel: free service from 1980 to date, search by formal criteria such as year, issue number, page.
Part II
· Makrolog – Recht für Deutschland: fee-based service: complete coverage from the start in 1951 to date (cf. above).
· Bundesanzeiger: fee-based version with materials from 1951.
· Bundesanzeiger: free read-only service; full text of all issues from 2002 to date.
Part III
· Makrolog – Recht für Deutschland: fee-based service, complete coverage from 1958 through 1969.
Bundesgesetzblatt Access Tools
Valid federal law is officially indexed in Fundstellennachweis A (FNA), an indispensable tool in accessing the statutory materials of Bundesgesetzblatt I. It features a subject, keyword and abbreviations index and an index of valid laws of the former German Democratic Republic and related federal laws, with a separate keyword index. Fundstellennachweis A is published by the Federal Ministry of Justice at the beginning of each year, with a mid-year supplement. It appears in print (light blue supplement to Bundesgesetzblatt), as a CD-ROM and online. For any classical federal law research using print sources Fundstellennachweis A will be the first "port of call."
Fundstellennachweis B (FNB) is the official index of Bundesgesetzblatt II (see above and below at 3.2) and published in print (red supplement to Bundesgesetzblatt) and online.
Alternatively, the Bundesgesetzblatt Gesamtregister (Comprehensive Index to the Federal Law Gazette) covering Parts I and II from 1949 - 2000 indexes the valid law and, in addition, laws and ordinances that have gone out of force. It was published in cooperation with C.H. Beck (last edition in 2001/2002). By contrast, when laws are amended, the Fundstellennachweis indexes sources of the old versions for the last time in the year of amendment.
While publishing amendments, Bundesgesetzblatt I does not usually provide consolidated or revised versions of laws. The complete text of the new law as amended is only published in the event of landmark changes (e.g., anti-trust law as revised in 1998). For this reason, Bundesgesetzblatt I is not a convenient tool for practical law research if a law has been amended multiple times.
Consolidated versions of the law (for a selection see below) are offered in a wide range of publications from various German legal publishers, who publish the German federal laws complete or by subject area. Many of these are also available electronically, on CD-ROM or online, as a free or fee-based service. Texts found in unofficial publications by commercial vendors should be checked for their currency against Bundesgesetzblatt I.
3.1.2 Bundesanzeiger
Ordinances are also officially published in Bundesanzeiger (BAnz), a publication of the Federal Ministry of Justice. Commercial vendors who publish these materials online include Makrolog – Recht für Deutschland (starting from 2001) and GBI/Genios (starting from 2003).
3.1.3 Federal Tax Gazette (Bundessteuerblatt – BStBl)
Federal tax legislation is officially published in Bundessteuerblatt, the official publication of the Federal Ministry of Finance (Federal Tax Gazette - BStBl, Stollfuss, 1951-; also on CD-ROM, 1992- with online updates). Like Bundesgesetzblatt, it appears in two parts: Part I includes federal tax laws as well as federal ordinances and administrative rules and regulations. Decisions of the Federal Tax Court (Bundesfinanzhof) are published in Part II.
Makrolog – Recht für Deutschland offers online access to the full texts of BStBl I and II complete from 1951, as well as of BStBl III with tax rulings from 1951 to 1967.
3.1.4 Reich Law Gazette (Reichsgesetzblatt – RGBl) and GDR Law Gazette (Gesetzblatt der DDR)
The official publication for most laws and ordinances prior to 1945 were the Reichsgesetzblatt and Reichsanzeiger, the predecessors to Bundesgesetzblatt and Bundesanzeiger.
Parallel to the Bundesgesetzblatt, East Germany published the Gesetzblatt der DDR (Law Gazette of the German Democratic Republic) from 1949-1990. As some former East German laws are still valid, this source may be of some relevance as well.
Both Reichsgesetzblatt and Gesetzblatt der DDR are available online (near complete) from Makrolog – Recht für Deutschland.
3.1.5 Commercial Online Publishers of Statutes and Ordinances
Commercial online publishers of German statutes beyond the ones mentioned above include the following:
The foremost commercial database of German federal law is Juris (also see below at 8.1). First established in the early 1970s one of its goals has been to document the development of the law over time. It covers federal and state laws, rules and regulations, EU law, case law, journal articles, press announcements on high court decisions, industrial bargaining agreements, and technology law. Federal laws are covered in full text, however, starting from different points in time. All versions of a law since that time are available in full text, including the texts of laws from the Reichsgesetzblatt and other official statutory publications prior to the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany that are still in force. juris also gives citations to much older texts. It perceives its mission as offering consolidated versions of laws including historical versions, to the extent they have been documented. In this respect, juris is currently the first, and in terms of its scope, single choice. Its Bundesrecht (Federal Law) database feeds on information from the Federal Ministry of Justice and, in the field of tax, from the Federal Ministry of Finance. It holds valid federal laws based on Fundstellennachweis A as well as previous versions of federal laws and ordinances, including the laws and regulations of the former German Democratic Republic still in force.
Access to the consolidated federal statutes including their historical versions, the Bundestag Drucksachen (printed matters) and the Bundesgesetzblatt, both beginning from the 15th parliamentary term, is also provided through the fee-based legislation portal Gesetzesportal launched by juris in association with Bundesanzeiger publishers in 2007.
Beck-online, the fee-based legal database service of C.H. Beck, the No. 1 legal publisher in Germany, features a large federal law collection, based on its ubiquitous looseleaf services, and in addition 3,000 statutes and ordinances from the Nomos federal law database, augmented by a collection of state laws (see below at 8.2). beck-online has started to include older versions of laws, with a selection starting from 2000 now available.
Das Deutsche Bundesrecht by Nomos publishers is another commercial product accessible via the Internet (20 updates per year; annual subscription or chip account; also available as a looseleaf service with monthly updates, and on CD-ROM with four updates per year). It offers complete coverage of current federal laws (including laws of the former East Germany still in force), based on Bundesgesetzblatt I, as well as select ordinances. It is also offered through beck-online (cf. above), with annotations of a number of laws as an added feature.
LexisNexis Recht, relatively new to Germany as a legal database provider, has established itself in the German legal information market among others by acquiring MBO publishers and obtaining licenses from other German publishers. Its legislation database, based on MBO content, covers about 8,000 federal rules of law, a wide selection of EU laws, and, almost completely, the laws of the 16 federal states.
Further providers of statutes databases include
· Makrolog - Recht für Deutschland in cooperation with Boorberg and Deubner publishers (some 2,000 consolidated federal statutes; also accessible from the Federal Law Gazette) and
· Legios, a database maintained by Otto Schmidt publishers (some 600 EU and German federal and state statutes, based on Boorberg publishers’ content).
3.1.6 Free Law Portals
The German Federal Government and juris in a joint project named Gesetze im Internet (Statutes on the Internet) have undertaken to put online major laws which fall within the sphere of competence of the Federal Government Ministries. They are offered as unofficial versions and can be accessed by subject, alphabetically and by ministry (the latter with a free-text search option). Also included is an English translation by a team of translators at Langenscheidt publishers of the First and Second Books of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch).
A cooperation between the Ministry of Justice of North Rhine/Westphalia (NRW) and LexisNexis has resulted in the free Web portal justiz-online featuring a selection of approx. 3,000 laws and regulations, both federal and of all 16 states with a focus on NRW. These materials are updated monthly.
For international treaties and agreements concluded by the Federal Republic of Germany to take effect nationally, a federal law needs to be enacted. The legislative process is recorded in the DIP and Parlamentsspiegel databases mentioned above at 2.1.
The official publication for Germany’s international treaties since 1951 is Bundesgesetzblatt Teil II (BGBl. II), which publishes both the international treaty or agreement concluded and the related federal law (available from the Web as a fee-based serviced at this site). Parlamentsspiegel and Das Deutsche Bundesrecht publish a selection.
The materials published in Bundesgesetzblatt II and its predecessor, Reichsgesetzblatt Teil II, are indexed in Fundstellennachweis B (cf. above at 3.1.1). It also provides an index of other signatory states. Other access tools include the Bundesgesetzblatt Gesamtregister (Comprehensive Index to the Federal Law Gazette) as well as a number of commercial looseleaf publications.
The laws of the European Union increasingly influence the national laws of all its member states. This applies to the Federal Republic of Germany as well, which was among the founding members in 1951. National laws in EU countries often implement EU directives, and it is therefore necessary to check for applicable EU law. EU regulations apply directly. Without going into the details of EU law research, the major sources from a German perspective shall be mentioned here.
EU treaties and their amendments, which constitute primary EU law, are published in the Official Journal Series L and in the CELEX (free service no longer updated since 2005) and EUR-Lex databases, as are EU directives and regulations once they have been passed into law. For Germany, EU legislation of crucial import is also published in Bundesgesetzblatt II.
Series C of the Official Journal publishes promulgations and drafts of directives and regulations as well as Commission documents. Both series appear in print and, for the past few years, in CD-ROM format (distributed in Germany by Bundesanzeiger Verlag). Free issues of the Official Journal are available online from EUR-Lex from 1998 to date. The German version of the European Union law databases CELEX/EUR-Lex is offered via juris. Some of the major directives and regulations can be found in Parlamentsspiegel. However, documentation of EU law was discontinued in 2001.
beck-online recently released its EU law module comprising EU laws and decisions underpinned by commentaries and handbooks.
Selections of EU law are also offered through the commercial services Legios and LexisNexis Recht.
German print sources on EU law include the Handbuch des europäischen Rechts (European Law Handbook), a looseleaf service with monthly updates which covers EU treaties with comments, as well as communications, directives, and regulations. Sartorius II: Internationale Verträge und Europarecht includes EU treaties and other EU texts.
EU case law is available in full text from the web site of the European Court of Justice (from 1997), or via EUR-Lex and the fee-based CELEX database. The official print publication for EU cases is the Sammlung der Rechtsprechung des Europäischen Gerichtshofs, which covers the decisions of the European Court of Justice since 1954. A number of commercial services are available as well.
3.3 State Laws and Subordinate Legislation
3.3.1 Print Sources
All German states publish their enacted state laws and ordinances in state law gazettes and gazettes of ordinances (the old states starting from 1947 and the new states of the former East Germany from 1990). The publishing authority may vary from one state to another and can be the state parliament, the ministry of the interior or ministry of justice, or others. In addition, most of the states publish administrative gazettes with administrative rules and ordinances. Consolidated versions are available in looseleaf format or on CD-ROM.
Some states such as Bavaria, which existed before World War II, published law gazettes as early as then. The laws of such states were revised after the war as necessary. In the 1950s most German states published compilations of revised laws to reflect the changes and amendments that had been made after World War II.
Commercial publishers put out consolidated compilations of state laws in looseleaf format. One of the major names to be mentioned here is C.H. Beck.
Official Gazettes of the Laws and Subordinate Legislation of the states in print format:
· Gesetzblatt für Baden-Württemberg
· Bayerisches Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt
· Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt für Berlin
· Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt Brandenburg
· Gesetzblatt der Freien Hansestadt Bremen
· Hamburgisches Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt
· Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt des Landes Hessen
· Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt für das Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
· Niedersächsisches Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt
· Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt für das Land Nordrhein-Westfalen
· Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt für das Land Rheinland-Pfalz
· Amtsblatt des Saarlandes
· Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt
· Sächsisches Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt
· Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt für Schleswig-Holstein
· Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt für das Land Thüringen
Major tools for accessing both federal and state legislation include the following:
· Schlegelberger, Franz/Friedrich,Walther, Das Recht der Gegenwart, a looseleaf service published by Vahlen publishers, which indexes state and federal laws by keyword (one complete update at the beginning of each year).
· The weekly Sammelblatt für Rechtsvorschriften des Bundes und der Länder, issued in journal format since 1950 with semi-annual indexes. It publishes the full-text of nearly all federal laws and major state laws and ordinances and references the complete tables of contents of the state law gazettes, of Bundesgesetzblatt I and II, and the Bundesanzeiger.
3.3.2 Online Sources
· Parlamentsspiegel provides free online access to most state law gazettes through one gateway. Complete records are currently available for North-Rhine Westphalia only.
An overview of the state law gazettes included in Parlamentsspiegel can be found here.
· Makrolog - Recht für Deutschland offers the facsimile editions of all state law gazettes as a fee-based service.
Most federal states provide online access to their state law gazettes in one way or another, some for free and some fee-based. An excellent overview is available from the joint portal of the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Justice Departments of the states at Justizportal des Bundes und der Länder.
Besides federal laws, current versions of laws and ordinances of some or all states are accessible through juris (14 states), beck-online (all states), and LexisNexis Recht (all states).
3.4 Federal Administrative Rules and Regulations
Universally binding administrative rules and regulations are published in Bundesanzeiger, and in Gemeinsames Ministerialblatt (Joint Gazette of the Government Ministries), a publication of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The latter has published since 1950 the federal administrative rules and regulations of various federal ministries.
In addition, there are publications on certain areas of the law, such as the Bundesarbeitsblatt (Federal Labor Law Gazette) published by the Federal Ministry of Labor or the Bundessteuerblatt (Federal Tax Gazette) of the Federal Ministry of Finance.
The aforementioned publications are all included in Makrolog - Recht für Deutschland, though not all volumes of the print edition.
juris offers the full text of tax administrative rules and regulations (from 1978), both federal and of the 16 states, and abstracts and citations of administrative rules and regulations for labor law (from 1986) and social welfare law (from 1954), in addition the administrative rules and regulations of Bavaria, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Schleswig-Holstein (Thuringia is currently under preparation). This will tremendously facilitate legal research in this field, all the more so because they are to be cross-referenced with statutory laws and major court decisions.
As of recently, the German government in association with juris have set up an internet portal for federal administrative rules and regulations (Verwaltungsvorschriften im Internet) giving the general public free access to current administrative rules and regulations issued by various federal government ministries. These are “living documents”, meaning that they are continuously updated by the competent federal authorities.
Finding federal administrative rules and regulations outside of the juris databases can be very tedious. One may have to fall back on statutory compilations and commentaries, which frequently provide footnote references to the relevant administrative rules.
3.5 State Administrative Rules and Regulations
The administrative rules and regulations of the states are published in print form in official gazettes of different types. juris has offered the full text of tax regulations and citations to employment law regulations as a fee-based service for quite some time. However, as with federal rules and regulations, completeness is a issue.
Beck-online has started to give increasing coverage to federal and state administrative rules and regulations, among others by offering its standard title Praxis der Kommunalverwaltung as a fee-based online service.
A number of states have put some of the relevant materials on the Internet. In January 2008 these included:
· Baden Württemberg: free state law service in cooperation with juris including current administrative rules.
· Baden-Württemberg: fee-based subscription-only service for administrative rules research.
· Bavaria: free state law database for non-commercial use in cooperation with juris including some administrative rules and regulations; fee-based service via Juris covering all administrative rules and regulations valid and published as per January 1, 2007 and those that became invalid after that date.
· Berlin: free administrative rules service of the Berlin Senate justice department
· Berlin: subscription service for Amtsblatt Berlin, free read-only version of the most recent five issues.
· Brandenburg: BRAVORS - free state law database including administrative rules and regulations.
· Lower Saxony: VORIS – free state law service in cooperation with juris including administrative rules and regulations.
· Lower Saxony: fee-based access to the Ministerial Gazette (Ministerialblatt) of Lower Saxony