Federal Council Approves Constitutional Amendments for Strengthening the Federal Constitutional Court
On Friday, the federal states’ chamber achieved the necessary two-thirds majority for the draft, with only Brandenburg abstaining. The day before, the Bundestag had voted with a large majority in favor of the amendments to the constitution. The initiative aims to enshrine essential structural features of the Federal Constitutional Court in the Basic Law and introduce a backup mechanism in the event of a blockage in the election of judges.
The articles 93 and 94 of the Basic Law will be changed accordingly. Article 93 will in the future anchor the status as a constitutional organ and the organization of the Federal Constitutional Court in the Basic Law. It will be specified, among other things, that the court consists of two senates with eight judges each. The term of office of 12 years, the age limit for judges, the ban on re-election, and the autonomous business order of the court will also be specified in the article.
Article 94 will then regulate the jurisdiction of the court, which is currently regulated in Article 93. In addition, the binding effect of the decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court will be explicitly enshrined in the Basic Law. The election of the judges of the Federal Constitutional Court will, according to the draft, be regulated in Article 93 (formerly Article 94) of the Basic Law in the future. The judges will continue to be elected by a joint half of the Bundestag and the Federal Council.
A new backup mechanism will be added, which will come into effect “if, within a specified period of time after the end of the term of office or the premature departure of a judge, an election of his successor does not take place.” In this case, the election right will be exercised by the other electoral organ, if the originally responsible electoral organ has not elected a new judge within three months after the submission of a nomination by the plenum of the Federal Constitutional Court.