German Law System

The following entry provides an overview about some elected aspects of the German Law System. From different points of view, the German system has been deeply influenced by the ordoliberal ideas developped within the Freiburg School in the early thirties of the 20th century. One of the core ordoliberal concepts that has to be discussed within the constitutional framework is that of a social market economy. Social market economy has become the interpretive framework for the economic and social order of Western Germany in the aftermath of World War II and today it represents not only a key concept at national level but also within the European Union. No less important is the role of the private law society as another key concept of ordoliberal thinking. Its main elements are clearly reflected in the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB) of 1900 which is based on the idea of the citizen as an homo oeconomicus. Notwithstanding its traditional approach – libertarian, unsocial and individualistic – , the BGB, a child of the abstract conceptualism of the pandectist school, has been able to survive till today. This is the merit of judge-made law and, in particular, of the theory of the fundamental rights’ indirect horizontal effect in relations governed by private law (mittelbare Drittwirkung). In recent times, the Code has even assumed a highly visible role as a possible model within the harmonisation of european contract law. The entry finishs with the description of the German system of legal education, a state oriented and judge centered bureaucratic model which is still embedded in the model of a «uniform jurist», the so-called Einheitsjurist.