Federal Court of Justice applies to jurisdiction Germany
The Federal Court of Justice (German: Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) is the highest court of civil and criminal jurisdiction in Germany. Its primary responsibility is the final appellate review of decisions by lower courts for errors of law. While, legally, a decision by the Federal Court of Justice is only binding with respect to the individual case in which it enters, de facto the court's interpretation of the law is followed by lower courts with almost no exception. Decisions handed down by the Federal Court of Justice can only be vacated by the Federal Constitutional Court for violating a provision of the German constitution, the Basic Law.
In addition to the court's appellate duties, a few judges of the Federal Court of Justice act as investigating judges in criminal investigations led by the Public Prosecutor General for a small number of exceptional offenses (such as crimes against humanity and the formation of terrorist organisations). As such, they are responsible for issuing search and arrest warrants, among other things.
The German legal order has different supreme courts for the different branches of its judiciary. The four sister supreme courts of the Federal Court of Justice are the Federal Administrative Court (for administrative matters), the Federal Finance Court (for tax matters), the Federal Labor Court (for matters of labour law), and the Federal Social Court (for social security matters).
The seat of the Federal Court of Justice is in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg. Two criminal divisions of the court are based in Leipzig, Saxony.Establishment
In May of 1949, the Basic Law (Grundgesetz) was enacted, establishing the Federal Republic of Germany. Article 96(1) of the Basic Law provided that "higher federal courts shall be established for the spheres of ordinary, administrative, finance, labour and social jurisdiction." Roughly a year later, it was decided by the German federal parliament, the Bundestag, that the "higher federal court" of ordinary (ie, civil and criminal) jurisdiction was to be named Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice) and that its seat was to be in the city of Karlsruhe. The location of the new supreme courts had been a matter of considerable debate at the time. Karlsruhe's most serious contender had been Cologne, where both the Supreme Court for the British Zone and the German High Court for the Combined Economic Area were based, but the Karlsruhe proposal ultimately found a large majority in the relevant parliamentary committee.
The Federal Court of Justice was established effective 1 October 1950 and began operating a day later. The Supreme Court for the British Zone ceased operations a day earlier and all cases pending before the court were transferred to the Federal Court of Justice. Of the 54 judgeships initially authorised for the court, only 12 were immediately filled, although that number quickly rose to 42 within the first three months of the court's operation; by July 1952 it stood at 86. New divisions were established, including a criminal division based in Berlin, 500 kilometres north-east of Karlsruhe. The steep increase in judgeships in the first years of the court's existence was in part the result of a higher-than-expected workload of the court, and in part the result of legislative changes that broadened the court's scope of responsibility. At the same time, the Reichsgericht's practice of employing assistant judges (Hilfsrichter) had been outlawed.Only in 1995, the Federal Court of Justice admitted to the failed processing of the Third Reich justice system.: 19