Organization
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Change
In spite of its title, “Change”, the following Annual Statistics shows hardly any change. As has been the case since 2006, the number of new proceedings has slightly increased again. The increase by 224 new proceedings as compared to 2007 is somewhat put into perspective by the fact that 163 parallel proceedings in the field of banking law, stock exchange law and law on securities were brought before the Federal Constitutional Court in 2008. If these parallel proceedings are counted as a single set of proceedings, the increase in 2008 is only about 1 per cent as compared to 2007. The increase might appear small and insignificant, but if one keeps in mind that for several years now, the annual number of incoming proceedings has been higher than 6,000, with a slight, but continuous upward trend, the Federal Constitutional Court’s workload is strikingly high. In 2008, this was reflected in the relation between new proceedings and terminated proceedings because for the first time in three years now, the number of new proceedings was higher than that of terminated proceedings, the latter figure, of 6,234 terminated proceedings, being as remarkable as ever.
As in the previous years, the number of new proceedings of the First Senate has increased more strongly in 2008 than that of the Second Senate. This development can be observed since 2001. On 4 December 2007 already, the Plenum therefore determined, on the basis of § 14.4 of the Federal Constitutional Court Act, a certain change of competences between the Senates. In 2008, however, the change did not result in a remarkable adjustment of the numbers of new proceedings between the two Senates. For this reason, the Plenum, in its session of 25 November 2008, decided to implement another, more comprehensive change of the Senates’ competences. With effect from 1 January 2009, the Second Senate is in the judicial years 2009 and 2010 also competent to rule on new proceedings from the following legal areas:
In the past, these legal areas, except for the law on petitions, on corporation tax and on merger and reorganisation tax were circulated among the judges’ departments in the First Senate. Due to the Plenum decision and to the Senates’ decisions on the allocation of their duties, specific judges’ departments will be competent in the Second Senate for the legal areas mentioned, and in the First Senate for the law on services contracts and on contracts for work done. This change in the Senates’ competences and in the internal competences of the judges’ departments is the reason for the title of the Annual Statistics’ preface.
To conclude, another, albeit small, change in the Annual Statistics 2008 is worth mentioning. As regards the General Register and the constitutional complaints which are recorded in it, the last overview (page 52) now distinguishes between those constitutional complaints which were recorded in the General Register because pursuant to § 60.2 of the Federal Constitutional Court’s Rules of Procedure, the complainants had to be informed about evident deficiencies as regards the admissibility of their complaint, and those constitutional complaints which had been recorded in the General Register because the constitutional complaint had been lodged as a precaution and prematurely although further legal remedies were still pending. This distinction is intended to show in the overview how many submissions and constitutional complaints were transferred to the register of proceedings after the complainant had been informed about evident deficiencies of the constitutional complaint as regards its admissibility. This differentiation clearly shows to what extent the General Register, and the information and instruction it provides, contributes to easing the Senates’ and the Chambers’ workload.
Karlsruhe, February 2009
Prof. Dr. Dres. h.c. Hans-Jürgen Papier
President of the Federal Constitutional Court