The German Bar Association (DAV) has expressed deep concern over the failure to elect three new judges to the Federal Constitutional Court. Ulrich Karpenstein, Vice-President of the DAV, told the “Tagesspiegel” newspaper on Friday that the association laments the increasing entanglement of the Constitutional Court’s appointments process within partisan political disputes and current affairs.
Karpenstein stated that it is “completely unacceptable” when campaigns are waged against nominated candidates, involving the selective removal of statements from their original context. He cautioned that if such practices become commonplace, they would not only damage the judge election process itself but would also undermine the Federal Constitutional Court’s integrity. The German Bar Association represents over 60,000 lawyers.