Constitutional Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

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Constitutional Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
- VerfGH NRW -
logo
State level country
position Constitutional body
founding March 1952
Headquarters Munster , GermanyGermanyGermany 
Chair President
Ricarda Brandts
Website vgh.nrw.de
Position in the state

The constitutional court for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (short VerfGH NRW or VGH NRW) is the constitutional court of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia . It is based in Münster, Westphalia .

Constitutional foundations

The powers and tasks of the constitutional court are regulated in the fifth section of the third part of the constitution for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia : The constitutional court decides

  • on the exclusion of associations and persons from participation in elections and votes,
  • on complaints in the electoral review procedure in state elections,
  • on complaints from associations against their non-recognition as a party for the election to the state parliament,
  • on the appeal against the decision of the state government on the admissibility of a referendum ,
  • on the interpretation of the state constitution on the occasion of disputes between the highest state organs or parts of these organs (organ disputes),
  • in the event of differences of opinion or doubts about the compatibility of state law with the state constitution ( abstract control of norms ),
  • on the compatibility of a law with the state constitution upon submission of a court, for whose decision the validity of the law is important ( specific control of norms ),
  • on constitutional complaints from municipalities and districts with which they assert a violation of their right to self-administration granted by the state constitution (municipal constitutional complaint),
  • on constitutional complaints from citizens (individual constitutional complaint) and
  • in other cases assigned by law.

Constitutional complaints from citizens

Since January 1, 2019, citizens and residents have had the opportunity to file a constitutional complaint with the Constitutional Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, claiming that an act of all three branches of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia has violated a fundamental right guaranteed by the state constitution be. This does not apply to decisions made on the basis of federal law, unless it concerns the application of federal procedural law by a state court.

The Constitutional Court decided and published nine proceedings between January and June 2019 , including four urgent proceedings .

Well-known decisions

Individual constitutional complaints

The first constitutional complaint was filed on February 7, 2019 by a complainant in pre-trial detention , who argued that the criminal courts had not adequately checked that there was no risk of escape for him and that their decisions had not given sufficient reasons. The Constitutional Court did not share this criticism and rejected the complaint.

The second constitutional complaint raised by a blind complainant was successful. She wanted to get blind money before the administrative courts, but they refused legal aid . In response to the constitutional complaint, the Constitutional Court overturned the first and second instance decisions and referred the proceedings back to the Cologne Administrative Court for renewed examination.

Municipal constitutional complaints

Lawsuit against the Strengthening Pact Act

In May 2016, the lawsuit by 70 cities and municipalities against the Strengthening Pact Act on City Finances was rejected by the Constitutional Court for encroaching on the financial sovereignty of the municipalities because the financial burdens for the municipalities concerned were reasonable.

composition

The composition of the constitutional court for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is regulated in Article 76 of the constitution of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia:

Until 2017, the Constitutional Court consisted of the President of the Higher Administrative Court , the two oldest presidents of the Higher Regional Court in the state and four members elected by the Landtag for a period of six years (half of whom had to be qualified to hold judicial office or higher administrative service).

Since July 1, 2017, all seven members and their deputies have been elected by the state parliament with a two-thirds majority for 10 years, whereby re-election is excluded and only persons who are qualified to be judges can be elected. Three members and their deputies must be professional judges. The term of office of the judges in office immediately before the change comes into force remains unaffected.

Ricarda Brandts has been President of the Constitutional Court since February 2013 .

Members of the Constitutional Court (as of June 2020)
Surname Life dates Beginning of the term of office
Ricarda Brandts (President) Aug 26, 1955 Feb. 2013
Andreas Heusch (Vice President) May 29, 1964 July 2014
Barbara Dauner-Lieb (Elective Member) Apr 28, 1955 May 2006
Joachim Wieland (Elective Member) July 30, 1951 May 2006
Claudio Nedden-Boeger (Elective Member) Jan. 13, 1966 June 2012
Dirk Gilberg (electoral member) May 29, 1964 Jan. 2020
Matthias Röhl (electoral member) 15th July 1969 March 2018

Other well-known members of the Constitutional Court were for example:

Seat and office

Constitutional Court in Münster

The court has its seat in the Westphalian university city of Münster .

The building at Aegidiikirchplatz 5 is shared with the Higher Administrative Court (OVG) . According to Section 11 of the Constitutional Court Act, the VGH can fall back on the business facilities of the OVG. According to Section 3 of the Rules of Procedure, the VGH made use of this right. The VGH has its office supported by that of the OVG.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the following cf. Constitutional Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court . accessed on August 30, 2016.
  2. ↑ Robert Hotstegs: NRW opened legal action for state constitutional complaint. In: Legal Tribune Online . December 31, 2018, accessed May 6, 2019 .
  3. ^ Lennart Deutschmann: The individual constitutional complaint before the Constitutional Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. (PDF) In: Journal for Legal Studies . Accessed May 31, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Robert Hotstegs: Statistics: H1 Verfassungsbeschwerde.NRW. June 30, 2019, accessed July 18, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Constitutional Tribunal North Rhine-Westphalia, decision of 22 May 2019 Constitutional Tribunal 19.01
  6. ↑ Constitutional Tribunal North Rhine-Westphalia, order of 30 April 2019 Constitutional Tribunal 2 / 19.VB-2
  7. ↑ The communal solos are permitted. In: The time . August 30, 2016, accessed July 24, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Constitutional Tribunal North Rhine-Westphalia, judgment of 30 August 2016 Constitutional Tribunal 34/14
  9. ↑ a b Constitutional Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, The Members of the Constitutional Court , accessed on June 7, 2020.
  10. ↑ Former members , homepage of the Constitutional Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on May 1, 2020

Coordinates: 51 ° 57 ′ 35 "  N , 7 ° 37 ′ 29.5"  E