Court Structure Act

Basic data
Title:	Court Structure Act
Abbreviation:	GerStrukG not officially
Type:	State Law
Scope:	Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Legal matter:	Administration of justice
Original version from:	March 19, 1991 ( GVOBl. MV p. 103 )
Entry into force on:	April 24, 1991
Last revision from:	April 7, 1998 ( GVOBl.MV p. 444 , ber.p. 549 )
Entry into force of the new version on:	January 1, 1998
Last change by:	Art. 1 No. 6 G of November 11, 2013 ( GVOBl. MV S. 609 )
Effective date of the last change:	March 2, 2015 (Art. 6 p. 2 G of November 11, 2013)
Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The Court Structure Act regulates the establishment of the courts and public prosecutor's offices in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and their local jurisdiction. The local jurisdiction of the courts is regulated by the Court Structure Act as well as by its Implementing Act, some ordinances of the Ministry of Justice and international treaties with other countries.

The Court Structure Act has been amended several times, with the last reform in November 2013 leading to numerous protests. With a referendum , over 120,000 citizens turned against the location closings of some local courts . A referendum was held on September 6, 2015 . However, this failed due to the approval quorum .

The constitutional jurisdiction is not standardized in the court structure law. Instead, regulations on the state constitutional court of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are contained in the state constitutional court law and in the state constitution .

content

dishes

The law defines the following court structure for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania:

Ordinary jurisdiction
Higher Regional Court of Rostock	Schwerin District Court	District court Ludwigslust   District court Schwerin   District court Wismar   District court Gadebusch  (repealed on December 31, 1997) District court Grevesmühlen  (repealed on July 13, 2015) District court Hagenow  (repealed on March 16, 2015) District court Parchim  (repealed on May 11, 2015) District court Plau am See  (repealed on December 31, 1997) Sternberg District Court  (repealed on December 31, 1997)
	Rostock Regional Court	Local court Güstrow   Local court Rostock   Local court Bad Doberan  (repealed on May 11, 2015) Local court Bützow  (repealed on December 31, 1997) Local court Ribnitz-Damgarten  (until September 30, 1994) Local court Teterow  (from October 1, 1994, repealed on December 31 1997)
	Stralsund District Court	Greifswald   District Court Stralsund   District Court Anklam District Court  (repealed on October 6, 2014) Bergen auf Rügen District Court  (repealed on November 23, 2015) Demmin District Court  (until September 30, 1994) Grimmen District Court  (repealed on December 31, 1997) Pasewalk District Court  (until November 30, 2015) September 1994) Ribnitz-Damgarten District Court  (from October 1, 1994, repealed on February 27, 2017) Ueckermünde District Court  (until September 30, 1994) Wolgast District Court  (repealed on August 31, 2015)
	District Court Neubrandenburg	District court Neubrandenburg   District court Pasewalk  (from October 1, 1994) District court Waren (Müritz)   District court Altentreptow  (repealed on December 31, 1997) District court Demmin  (from October 1, 1994, repealed on September 28, 2015) District court Malchin  (repealed on December 31, 1997) 1997) Neustrelitz District Court  (repealed on February 2, 2015) Röbel District Court  (repealed on December 31, 1997) Strasburg District Court  (repealed on December 31, 1997) Teterow District Court  (until September 30, 1994) Ueckermünde District Court  (from October 1, 1994, repealed on December 1, 2014)
Labor jurisdiction
State Labor Court Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (in  Rostock )	Rostock   Labor Court Schwerin   Labor Court Stralsund   Labor Court Neubrandenburg Labor Court  (from January 1, 2002, repealed on October 6, 2014) Neustrelitz Labor Court  (repealed on December 31, 2001)
Social justice
Regional Social Court of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (in Neustrelitz , until March 1, 2015 in Neubrandenburg )	Social Court Neubrandenburg   Social Court Rostock   Social Court Schwerin   Social Court Stralsund
Administrative jurisdiction
Upper Administrative Court Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (in  Greifswald )	Administrative Court Greifswald   Administrative Court Schwerin
Financial jurisdiction
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Finance Court (in Greifswald )

In addition, six branches were set up, each assigned to a local court.

District Court	Branch
Ludwigslust	Parchim
Neubrandenburg	Demmin
Pasewalk	Anklam
Wismar	Grevesmühlen
Goods (Müritz)	Neustrelitz
Stralsund	Mountains on Rügen

In the annex to the law, the affiliation of the respective municipalities of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to a district court is specified.

Public prosecutors

Seat of the Rostock Public Prosecutor's Office

The Rostock Public Prosecutor's Office was set up at the Rostock Higher Regional Court . It is responsible for the judicial districts of the regional courts and thus for the area of ​​the entire country. The public prosecutor's offices responsible in the respective regional court districts were established at the regional courts of Neubrandenburg, Rostock, Schwerin and Stralsund.

The Court Structure Act does not regulate the formation of specialty public prosecutor's offices . In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, priority public prosecutor's offices were set up to deal with white-collar crime cases through an administrative regulation .

Authorization to issue ordinances

The Court Structure Act also contains a basis for authorization . According to this, the Ministry of Justice is empowered to issue statutory orders for certain cases, such as the annulment of a court . This was used in January 2014 with the Branch Ordinance. The Presidium of the Stralsund District Court sued the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Higher Administrative Court. As part of a regulatory review , the latter confirmed in its judgment of June 2, 2015 the power of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state parliament to issue such an authorization. However, in the opinion of the Higher Administrative Court, the specific design of the Branch Ordinance limits the authority of the District Court Presidium to distribute business . This is a violation of the Courts Constitution Act and thus higher-ranking federal law .

This was preceded by a judicial review complaint by the Presidium of the Bergen auf Rügen District Court, which was dismissed as inadmissible in March 2015 due to the lack of authorization to file an application. The Higher Administrative Court did not allow an appeal against this judgment. A complaint against this before the Federal Administrative Court was unsuccessful.

Since the Branch Ordinance was largely declared ineffective, the Ministry of Justice issued an ordinance amending it in September 2015.

Reforms

First, second and third amending laws

The original version of the Court Structure Act of March 19, 1991 has been reformed several times. With the entry into force of the first court structure amendment law (GStrukÄndG) on October 1, 1994, some of the total of 31 local courts moved to a different regional court district. In addition, all judicial districts were adapted to the territorial status applicable after the district reform of 1994 .

With the second amending law of December 18, 1995, the Neustrelitz Labor Court was relocated to Neubrandenburg on January 1, 2002.

The Court Structure Act was amended a third time by the law on cost-cutting structural measures and its new version was published on April 7, 1998 in the Law and Ordinance Gazette. Ten local courts were converted into branches, which were gradually closed one after the other until May 2009.

Court Structure Reform Act

Change in
district court districts
from 2014 to 2017

before the judicial structure reform came into force

after full implementation of the judicial structure reform

On October 9, 2013, the state parliament passed the court structure restructuring law with a majority of the CDU and SPD government factions , which provided for a gradual reduction of the local courts from 21 to 10 and the establishment of 6 branches from October 6, 2014. The Labor Court in Neubrandenburg was also repealed and converted to the Foreign Chamber of the Labor Court in Stralsund. Other changes concerned, among other things, the regional social court, which moved its seat from Neubrandenburg to Neustrelitz on March 2, 2015. In addition, the authority to issue ordinances was added to the Court Structure Act, whereupon the Branch Ordinance was issued.

Protests against the court structure reform of 2013 led to the popular initiative “For the preservation of a citizen-friendly court structure in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania” with around 36,000 supporters even before the Reorganization Act was passed . Although the state parliament approved the motion of the popular initiative, the majority saw no contradiction to the planned reform. This was followed by a referendum in which the Pro Justiz Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Association and the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Judges' Association collected around 150,000 signatures for a bill to repeal the reform and handed it over to the President of the State Parliament, Sylvia Bretschneider , on December 9, 2014 . The counting and verification of votes was completed when 120,312 valid signatures were found. Since the then applicable minimum number of 120,000 votes was exceeded, the state parliament had to deal with the bill of the referendum. However, the latter stuck to his opinion and rejected the bill of the referendum on June 3, 2015 with a government majority, so that on September 6, 2015 a referendum was carried out against the reform of the judicial structure . The parliamentary groups Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and Die Linke tabled three bills postponing the reform between September 2014 and June 2015, which also failed to find a majority.

The referendum failed spuriously . The approval quorum of 33.3 percent of the electorate was not achieved, so that the judicial structure reform was carried out further.

In addition, a lawyer resident in Ahlbeck filed a constitutional complaint against the repeal of the district courts of Anklam and Wolgast . However, the state constitutional court rejected this as inadmissible.

With the repeal of the Ribnitz-Damgarten district court on February 27, 2017, the reform of the court structure was fully implemented. Up until February 2017, the reform resulted in building costs of over 6 million euros.

Web links

• Complete edition of the Court Structure Act. Retrieved August 4, 2015 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Law for the implementation of the Court Structure Act of June 10, 1992, GVOBl. MV 1992, p. 314 .
2. ↑ Ordinance on the concentration of competences of the courts (Concentration Ordinance - KonzVO MV) of March 28, 1994, GVOBl. MV 1994, p. 514 ;
   Ordinance on the local court branches and further regulations for the implementation of the Court Structure Restructuring Act (Branch Ordinance - Branch Ordinance MV) of January 15, 2014, GVOBl. MV 2014, p. 29 ;
   Ordinance on the determination of the central enforcement court of December 16, 2010, GVOBl. MV 2010, p. 804 ;
   State Ordinance on Concentration of Asylum Procedures in Administrative Courts by Country of Origin (Asylum Procedure Concentration Ordinance - AsylVfKonzLVO MV) of December 17, 2015, GVOBl. MV 2015, p. 642 ;
   Ordinance on the jurisdiction of the social courts of December 15, 2004, GVOBl. MV 2004, p. 569 .
3. ^ Agreement on the jurisdiction of the Hamburg District Court for the distribution procedures under maritime law of November 6, 1991, GVOBl. MV 1992, p. 366 ;
   Agreement between the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on the jurisdiction of the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in inland waterway matters from June 1/12. August 1993, GVOBl. MV 1993, p. 594 ;
   Agreement on the jurisdiction of the Hamburg Regional Court for legal disputes over technical property rights of November 17, 1992, GVOBl. MV 1993, p. 919 ;
   State treaty on the jurisdiction of the Rostock District Court for the register of ships and in the dispute procedure of August 29, 1994, GVOBl. MV 1995, p. 655 ;
   State Treaty on the jurisdiction of the Magdeburg District Court for the inland shipping register of March 6, 1995, GVOBl. MV 1995, p. 599 ;
   State treaty between the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on the establishment of a joint dunning court of August 17, 2005, GVOBl. MV 2005, p. 512 ;
   State treaty between the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg on the jurisdiction of the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court of Hamburg in criminal matters relating to the protection of the state of February 16, 2012, GVOBl. MV 2012, p. 250 .
4. ↑ Law on the State Constitutional Court of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (State Constitutional Court Act - LVerfGG MV) of 19 July 1994, GVOBl. MV 1994, p. 734 .
5. ^ Constitution of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania of May 23, 1993, GVOBl. MV 1993, p. 372 .
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Art. 1 Para. 23 Law on cost-reducing structural measures in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania of 25 September 1997, GVOBl. MV 1997, p. 502 .
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Art. 1 No. 4 of the Act to Change the Court Structure Act and other legal provisions (Court Structure Reform Act) of 11 November 2013, GVOBl. MV 2013, p. 609 .
8. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Court Structure Amendment Act of June 28, 1994, GVOBl. MV 1994, p. 657 .
9. ↑ ^{a b} 2nd Court Structure Amendment Act of December 18, 1995, GVOBl. MV 1995, p. 652 .
10. ↑ General administrative regulation priority public prosecutor's offices for processing white-collar crime cases from April 13, 1993 - III A 321 / 3262-17 -, Official Gazette. MV 1993, p. 937 .
11. ↑ OVG MV, judgment of June 2, 2015 - 2 K 13/15 .
12. ↑ Section 21e (1) of the GVG.
13. ↑ OVG MV, judgment of March 25, 2015 - 2 K 22/14 .
14. ↑ BVerwG, decision of October 27, 2015 - 1 BN 1.15 .
15. ^ First ordinance amending the branch ordinance of September 21, 2015, GVOBl. MV 2015, p. 290 , (PDF; 29 kB).
16. ↑ Minutes of the plenary. (PDF; 1.2 MB) 6/50. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Parliament, October 9, 2013, pp. 37-69, 108 , accessed on December 19, 2014 . 
17. ^ Application of the popular initiative. (PDF; 152 kB) Printed matter 6/1021. State Parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, August 14, 2012, accessed on June 3, 2015 . 
18. ↑ Decision recommendation and report of the European and Legal Committee. (PDF; 177 kB) Printed matter 6/1263. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Parliament, October 16, 2012, accessed on August 10, 2015 . 
19. ↑ Around 150,000 signatures against judicial reform ( memento of December 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), ndr.de, December 9, 2014.
20. ↑ press release. 1/2015. State Returning Officer Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, February 24, 2015, accessed on February 24, 2015 . 
21. ↑ Art. 60 para. 1 p. 3 of the constitution of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania of 23 May 1993, GVOBl. MV 1993, p. 372 .
22. ↑ Minutes of the decision. (PDF; 100 kB) 94th meeting. State Parliament Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, June 3, 2015, p. 3 , accessed on June 4, 2015 . 
23. ↑ press release. 111/2015. Ministry of the Interior and Sport of the State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , June 16, 2015, accessed on June 17, 2015 . 
24. ↑ Minutes of the decision. (PDF; 44.0 kB) 77th meeting. State Parliament Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, October 15, 2014, p. 6 , accessed on February 24, 2015 . Decision minutes. (PDF; 35.1 kB) 86th meeting. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Parliament, January 28, 2015, p. 5 , accessed on February 24, 2015 . Decision minutes. (PDF; 94.2 kB) 96th meeting. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Parliament, July 1, 2015, p. 5 , accessed on July 3, 2015 . 
     
     
25. ↑ Decision of April 30, 2015 - LVerfG 7/14 , (PDF; 75 kB).
26. ↑ Judicial reform in the northeast completed. ndr.de, February 27, 2017, accessed March 4, 2017 . 
27. ↑ Small question from the delegate Jaqueline Bernhardt (DIE LINKE) and answer from the state government. (PDF; 239 kB) Printed matter 7/169. State Parliament Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, February 14, 2017, accessed on July 20, 2017 .