German Parliament Strengthens the Federal Constitutional Court’s Safeguards.
On Thursday in Berlin, 600 MPs voted in favor of the corresponding constitutional law amendment, with 69 against. As a result, the two bills of the former coalition and the Union gained the necessary two-thirds majority.
The proposal aims to enshrine essential structural features of the Federal Constitutional Court in the Basic Law. Additionally, a backup mechanism will be introduced in the event of a blockade in the judge election process.
To achieve this, Articles 93 and 94 of the Basic Law will be amended. 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. Key points to be enshrined include the court consisting of two senates with eight judges each, the 12-year term of office, the age limit for judges, the ban on re-election, and the court’s business autonomy.
Article 94 will then regulate the court’s competencies, previously regulated in Article 93. The binding effect of the Federal Constitutional Court’s decisions will also be explicitly enshrined in the Basic Law. The election of the Federal Constitutional Court judges will, according to the draft, be regulated in Article 93 (formerly Article 94) of the Basic Law. The judges will continue to be elected by a joint half of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
A new backup mechanism will be added, which will kick in “if, within a specified time frame, after the end of the term of office or the premature departure of a judge, the election of his successor does not take place”. In this case, the election will be carried out by the other electoral body, if the originally responsible electoral body does not elect a new judge within three months after the submission of a nomination by the plenum of the Federal Constitutional Court.