State Court of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen

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The State Court of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the constitutional court of this federal state (Art 140 Paragraph 1 Bremen State Constitution (BremLV)). Like the citizenry (the state parliament) and the Senate , it is the constitutional body of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and an independent and independent court of justice compared to the other constitutional bodies (§ 1 State Court Law -StGHG-).

Place of jurisdiction and jurisdiction

The judicial district covers the entire state of Bremen.

The State Court of Justice has its office in the Specialized Court Center in Bremen, the address is: Am Wall 198, 28195 Bremen . The office of the State Court of Justice is the office of the Higher Administrative Court (Section 7 (2) StGHG).

Jurisdiction of the State Court

The State Court of Justice is supposed to uphold the primacy of the Bremen constitution (Art. 66 Paragraph 2 and 20 Paragraph 2 BremLV). The actions of the politically active, including the democratically elected Bremen citizens, should be measured against the legal standard of the state constitution.

As the state constitutional court, the state court has to examine whether acts of the state violate the state constitution. The check whether acts of the federal and state governments against the Basic Law violated (the Federal Constitution), is up to the Federal Constitutional Court .

Individual competences of the State Court

The following competencies are important for the exercise of the work of the State Court:

Abstract norm control

In procedures of abstract norm control , legal norms (laws, ordinances, statutes) and draft norms (so-called preventive norm control) are checked for their compatibility with the state constitution. The Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, the citizenship or a fifth of the legal number of members of the citizenship or a public corporation of the state of Bremen are entitled to apply for the implementation of the abstract norm review.

Organ dispute

The organ dispute is about the delimitation of the areas of responsibility of constitutional organs of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, in particular about constitutional disputes between the citizenship and the Senate. Constitutional organs or parts of them are entitled to apply, provided they are given their own rights by the Bremen state constitution or the rules of procedure of the citizenship.

Interpretation procedure

In this procedure, the content of Bremen's constitutional law is to be determined in a binding manner (see interpretation (law) ). This can also take place without an abstract norm control or the organ dispute procedure. The Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, the citizenship (or one fifth of the legal members of the citizenship) or a public corporation of the State of Bremen are entitled to apply for the interpretation procedure.

Concrete control of norms

If a court of the state of Bremen comes to the conclusion that the law is incompatible with the state constitution when applying a state law, the validity of which is important, it has to suspend its proceedings and bring about a decision by the state court.

Electoral review process

The State Court of Justice has been a court of appeal in election review proceedings since 1996.

Procedure for the approval of referendums and citizens' motions

If the Senate does not consider the legal requirements for admitting a referendum to be met, it must bring about a decision by the State Court. The State Court of Justice then has to determine whether the legal requirements for a referendum are met (§ 31 StGHG).

According to Section 4 of the Act on the Procedure for Citizens ' Applications, a decision by the State Court of Justice can be applied for against the rejection of a citizens' application (cf. Section 32 StGHG).

No constitutional complaint

The constitution of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen does not recognize individual fundamental rights lawsuits ( constitutional complaints ) that can be brought by anyone.

Decisions of the state court

The decision formula for the decisions of the State Court of Justice is to be published in the law gazette of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. If the State Court of Justice makes a decision on the compatibility or incompatibility of a standard with the state constitution by means of a normative review, its decision has the force of law (cf. § 11 StGHG).

The rulings of the State Court of Justice can be viewed in full from the decision date 1991 on the homepage of the State Court of Justice. Previous decisions are only available in excerpts on this homepage.

Occupation of the State Court

The State Court has seven judges: the President of the Higher Administrative Court of Bremen as a legal member and six members of the State Court elected by the citizens for the duration of the electoral term . Two of the elected members must be professional judges of the state of Bremen. A re-election of the members is permitted. The elected members may not be members of the Senate or the citizenship, when they are elected to the citizenship, "the strength of the parliamentary groups should be taken into account if possible".

Two deputies must be elected for each of the six elected members. The President of the Higher Administrative Court is represented by the Vice-President of the Higher Administrative Court and an elected professional judge.

The President of the State Court and his deputy are elected by the members of the State Court from among their number for the duration of the electoral term.

Membership in the State Court is an honorary post.

Members were Alfred Rinken (President), Ilsemarie Meyer (Vice President, President of the Higher Administrative Court), Wolfgang Arenhövel , Barbara Remmert , Eckart Klein , Uwe Lissau , Ulrich K. Preuß until 2007 and 2011 respectively .

From 2011 to 2015 the members were Ilsemarie Meyer (President), Hans Alexy (Vice President), Ute Sacksofsky, Uwe Lissau , Elke Gurlit, Sabine Schlacke and Barbara Remmert.

From 2015 to 2019, the members are Ilsemarie Meyer (President), Uwe Lissau (Vice President), Gralf-Peter Calliess , Wolfgang Grotheer , Barbara Remmert, Sabine Schlacke and Christine Vollmer. Ilsemarie Meyer retired on July 1, 2019.

Controversy

Dispute with the left faction

The election of the members of the State Court, which had been carried out by agreement between the various parliamentary groups, led to a controversy with the left in 2007 . In the election by the 16th citizens , three candidates from the SPD , two from the CDU and one from the Greens were elected by consensus . While the FDP refrained from making its own proposal in 2007, the left-wing parliamentary group, represented by seven MPs, saw itself at a disadvantage in terms of the state constitution and presented a qualified lawyer and economist as its own candidate for election. However, this was not chosen.

Development of the proportion of women

The purely male composition of the board, decided by the citizenship in 2007, was criticized by the women's representative of the state of Bremen and the Bremen women's committee . The state women's commissioner reminded the parties of the mandate enshrined in the Bremen state constitution to “work towards ensuring that women and men are equally represented in bodies governed by public law”. The citizens of Bremen have "blatantly disregarded the constitutional mandate" because "in the meantime, it is acknowledged that there are a lot of professionally and politically well-qualified female lawyers, including judges", so that "the previous argument of missing candidates no longer applies ". The validity of the criticism was thereupon recognized by the parliamentary group chairmen of the governing parties Carsten Sieling (SPD) and Matthias Güldner (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen).

In 2007 the share was 38.5 percent of the members of the parliament. In the parliamentary groups, women made up 45.5 percent in the SPD, 30.4 percent in the CDU and 50 percent in the Greens.

Since 2008, Ilse Marie Meyer represented on the committee by virtue of their duties performed since 2008 as president of the administrative court.

Barbara Remmert has been a member of the State Court of Justice since March 2010 . She is the first woman to be elected since Louise Frentzel (1964–1967). Remmert was unanimously elected as the successor to Peter M. Huber by the Bremen citizenship.

Since the election of judges in the 18th legislative period of Bremen's citizenship in November 2011, five of the seven members of the committee have been women. The proportion of women in the court rose to around 70 percent by 2011.

See also

literature

  • Rinken, Alfred, Staatsgerichtshof , in: Kröning, Volker / Pottschmidt, Günter / Preuß, Ulrich K. / Rinken, Alfred (eds.), Handbook of the Bremen Constitution. Baden-Baden 1991, pp. 484-546, ISBN 3789023108 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ beck-online: [BremVerf]: Article 139 [State Court of Justice: composition, election, term of office]. Retrieved November 18, 2010.
  2. ↑ Weser-Kurier of November 22, 2011, p. 8.
  3. ^ State Court of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen - Acting members. Retrieved April 19, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Ilsemarie Meyer and Karen Buse - two experienced lawyers from Bremen are retiring , article from June 28, 2019 on bremen.de.
  5. ↑ “In the election, the strength of the parliamentary groups should be taken into account if possible.” In: beck-online: [BremVerf]: Article 139 [State Court of Justice: composition, election, term of office]. Retrieved November 18, 2010.
  6. ^ NWZ online: Party dispute over the occupation of the State Court. October 17, 2007. Accessed on November 18, 2010.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nwzonline.de  
  7. ↑ Press office of the Senate: State women's commissioner criticizes the choice of state court judges. October 17, 2007. Retrieved November 18, 2010.
  8. ↑ a b bfa press releases: Decision of the entire board of the Bremen Women's Committee of October 18, 2007 on the purely male occupation of the State Court. Retrieved November 18, 2010.
  9. ↑ beck-online: [BremVerf]: Article 2 [1] [equality]. Retrieved November 18, 2010.
  10. ↑ Handbook of the Bremen Citizenship: Personal details of the 17th electoral term. Composition of parliament according to female and male members. (Data from the State Parliament) p. 51.
  11. ↑ State Court of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen: 6th legislative period 1963/1967. (PDF, 47.9 KB) Retrieved November 18, 2010.
  12. ↑ tagblatt.de: Tübingen law professor at the State Court. March 23, 2010. Retrieved November 18, 2010.
  13. ^ Staatsgerichtshof.bremen.de: The members. The incumbent judges. Retrieved January 24, 2012.

Coordinates: 53 ° 4 ′ 25.1 ″  N , 8 ° 48 ′ 45.8 ″  E