Law to improve the legal status of animals in civil law
| Basic data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Law to improve the legal status of animals in civil law |
| Abbreviation: | TierVerbG |
| Type: | Federal law |
| Scope: | Federal Republic of Germany |
| Legal matter: | civil right |
| Issued on: | August 20, 1990 ( Federal Law Gazette I, p. 1762 ) |
| Entry into force on: | September 1, 1990 |
| Please note the note on the applicable legal version. | |
The law to improve the legal status of animals in civil law (TierVerbG) is a German federal law from 1990 to improve animal welfare in the area of private law . In the form of an article law , changes were made to the Civil Code , the Code of Civil Procedure and the Animal Welfare Act.
background
An amendment to the Animal Welfare Act in 1986 expressly recognized the “human responsibility for animals as fellow creatures” ( Section 1 TierSchG). In the view of the Federal Government , however, the private law provisions did not meet this obligation, since animals were still formally regarded as inanimate objects there. Through the law, the basic idea that animals are fellow creatures of humans, should now also be anchored in civil law and, above all, the equality of animals with things should be eliminated.
Legislative process
The federal government's draft law of August 11, 1989 was first sent to the Federal Council for comment. This was drawn up by the Legal Committee and approved by the Federal Council on September 22, 1989. The Federal Government then forwarded the draft to the Bundestag, where it was referred on February 8, 1990 to the Committee on Legal Affairs (leading), the Committee on Food, Agriculture and Forestry and the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety .
The recommendation for a resolution was published by the rapporteurs Eckhart Pick and Anton Stark on June 12, 1990 and on June 20, 1990 the Bundestag accepted it in the second and third reading with the votes of the CDU , CSU , FDP and SPD, with the Greens abstaining . On July 6, 1990, the Federal Council decided not to convene the mediation committee, whereupon the law was drawn up and promulgated on August 25, 1990. It came into force on September 1, 1990.
Changes
Civil Code
Was newly inserted § 90a BGB, which states that animals are not objects and are protected by special laws. However, the same rules apply to animals that also apply to things, unless otherwise stipulated in the law. The concept of animal is not limited to higher animal species; instead, the biological concept of animals should be used, which also includes pests , for example ; Eggs , embryos or carcasses are not animals in the sense of the standard .
The second sentence added to Section 251 (2) of the German Civil Code (BGB) expanded the claims for damages by owners of injured animals. In principle, medical treatment costs can also be demanded from the injuring party if these exceed the value of the animal.
Section 903 of the German Civil Code, which regulates the powers of the owner of a thing, points out in the attached sentence 2 that the special regulations for the protection of animals must be observed.
Code of Civil Procedure
The added sentence 3 in Section 765a (1) ZPO has strengthened the enforcement protection for animal owners. According to this, the court has to take into account the responsibility of humans for the animal.
Was removed from the ZPO § 811 no. 14, said that pets only up to a value of 500 DM excluded from attachment are. Instead, § 811c ZPO stipulates the general non-seizure of pets. A seizure is only possible "if the non-seizure would mean hardship for the creditor, which cannot be justified, even considering the concerns of animal welfare and the legitimate interests of the debtor" (§ 811c (2) ZPO).
Animal Welfare Act
On the recommendation of the Federal Council, Section 20a was also added to the Animal Welfare Act . In addition to the already existing possibility of pronouncing a ban on keeping animals ( Section 20 TierSchG), this made it possible to temporarily prohibit a suspected criminal from keeping animals.
criticism
The law did not go far enough for the Greens. In the second reading, Charlotte Garbe described the draft as “a shameful caricature of what animal lovers in the Federal Republic of Germany have been demanding for years” and spoke of a “cosmetic adaptation of the BGB”.
Some of the changes in jurisprudence have met with some harsh criticism. Helmut Heinrichs described § 90a BGB as a “sensitive declamation without real legal content”. Othmar Jauernig particularly emphasized the lack of content of § 90a sentence 2 BGB and pointed out that its banality was even exceeded by § 903 sentence 2 BGB. On the occasion of the draft law, Karsten Schmidt caricaturedly dealt with the question of whether dogs are plastic bags .
literature
- Gregor Mühe: The law to improve the legal status of animals in civil law . In: New legal weekly . Year 1990, issue 36, pp. 2238-2240.
- Karsten Schmidt: Are dogs plastic bags? In: Legal journal . Year 1989, p. 790ff.
Web links
- Legal Documentation ( DIP )
Footnotes
- ↑ BGBl. 1986 I p. 1309
- ↑ Federal printed matter 380/89
- ↑ Federal printed matter 380/1/89
- ↑ Bundesrat printed paper 380/89 (printed in Bundestag printed paper 11/5463 (PDF; 435 kB), Annex 2, pp. 8-10)
- ↑ Bundestag printed paper 11/5463 (PDF; 435 kB)
- ↑ BT plenary minutes 11/194 (PDF; 3.6 MB), p. 14930 f.
- ↑ Bundestag printed paper 11/7369 (PDF; 561 kB)
- ↑ BT plenary minutes 11/216 (PDF; 3.8 MB), pp. 17078–17082
- ↑ Federal printed matter 444/90
- ↑ Joachim Jickeli, Malte Stieper : The meaning of § 90a S. 1. In: Julius von Staudinger: Commentary on the Civil Code with introductory law and subsidiary laws. Revised 2004, § 90a Rn. 5 ff.
- ↑ Palandt / Heinrichs, BGB, § 90a, Rn. 1
- ↑ Jauernig, BGB, § 90a, Rn. 1
- ↑ JZ 1989, 790
