Draft:Constitutional Court of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen
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The Constitutional Court of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the federal state constitutional review (Art 140 paragraph 1 of Bremen Constitution (BremLV)). Like the Citizens' Assembly (the state parliament) and the Senate, it is a constitutional body of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and an autonomous and independent court of law compared to the other constitutional bodies (Section 1 of the State Court Act -StGHG-).
History, court seat, judicial district
[edit]Article 139 of the State Constitution provides for the establishment of a State Court. The State Court was established by law of 21 June 1949.[1] The law was revised in 1956
The judicial district covers the state of Bremen.
The State Court of Justice has its office in the Bremen Specialized Court Centre, the address is: Am Wall 198, 28195 Bremen. The State Court of Justice's office is the office of the Higher Administrative Court (Section 7 Paragraph 2 StGHG).
From 2011 to 2019, a woman, Ilsemarie Meyer, headed the court for the first time.
Jurisdiction
[edit]The State Court should uphold the primacy of the Bremen Constitution (Article 66, paragraph 2 and Article 20, paragraph 2 of the Bremen Constitution). The actions of politicians, including the democratically elected citizens of Bremen, should be measured against the legal standard of the state constitution.
As a state constitutional court, the State Court of Justice must examine whether state acts violate the state constitution. The Federal Constitutional Court is responsible for examining whether acts of the federal government and the states violate the Basic Law (the Federal Constitution).
Individual competencies
[edit]The following competences are important for the exercise of the State Court's activities:
Litigation
[edit]In litigation (laws, legal regulations, 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 Citizens' Assembly or one fifth of the statutory number of members of the Citizens' Assembly or a public corporation of the State of Bremen are entitled to apply for abstract norm control.
Organ dispute
[edit]The organ dispute concerns the delimitation of the areas of responsibility of constitutional bodies of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, in particular constitutional disputes between the Citizens' Assembly and the Senate. Constitutional bodies or parts of them are entitled to file applications, provided they have been granted their own rights by the Bremen State Constitution or the Citizens' Assembly's rules of procedure.
Interpretation procedures
[edit]In this procedure, the content of Bremen's constitutional law is to be determined in a binding manner (see Interpretation of law). This can also be done without an abstract review of norms or the organ dispute procedure. The Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, the Citizens' Assembly (or one fifth of the statutory members of the Citizens' Assembly) or a public corporation of the State of Bremen are entitled to apply for the interpretation procedure.
Declarations of unconstitutionality
[edit]If a court of the State of Bremen, when applying a state law on whose validity the decision is based, comes to the conclusion that the law is incompatible with the state constitution, it must stay its proceedings and obtain a decision from the State Court of Justice.
Election review procedure
[edit]The State Court has been the court of appeal in election review proceedings since 1996.
Admission of referendums and citizens’ petitions
[edit]If the Senate does not consider the legal requirements for the approval of a referendum to be met, it must obtain a decision from the State Court of Justice. The State Court of Justice must then determine whether the legal requirements for a referendum are met (Section 31 StGHG).
According to Section 4 of the Law on the Procedure for Citizens' Petitions, a decision by the State Court can be requested against the rejection of a citizen's petition (see Section 32 StGHG).
No constitutional complaint
[edit]The Constitution of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen does not provide for an individual fundamental rights lawsuit (constitutional complaint), which can be filed by anyone - there are restrictions.
Decisions of the State Court
[edit]The judgement of the State Court of Justice must be published in the Official Gazette of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. If the State Court of Justice makes a decision on the compatibility or incompatibility of a norm with the state constitution by way of judicial review, its decision has the force of law (cf. Section 11 StGHG).
The decisions of the State Court of Justice can be viewed verbatim on the State Court's website from the date of the decision in 1991. Decisions made before this date are only available in excerpts on this website.
Occupation
[edit]The state court is made up of seven judges: the President of the Higher Administrative Court of Bremen as a statutory 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. Members may be re-elected. The elected members may not be members of the Senate or the Citizens' Assembly; when they are elected in the Citizens' Assembly, "the strength of the factions should be taken into account wherever 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 vice-president shall be 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 position.
President
[edit]- 1949-1956 Rudolf Laun
- 1956-1969 Alexander Lifschütz
- 1969-1979 Harry Rohwer-Kahlmann, Landessozialgerichtspräsident
- 1979-2002 Günter Pottschmidt, Präsident des Oberverwaltungsgerichts Bremen
- 2002-2011 Alfred Rinken
- 2011-2019 Ilsemarie Meyer
- 2019-today Peter Sperlich
Vice Presidents
[edit]- 1949-1956 Hellmuth Stutzer
- 1956-1969 Harry Rohwer-Kahlmann, President of the State Social Court
- 1971-1975 Conrad Kirchmeyer, President of the Higher Administrative Court of Bremen
- 1975-1979 Werner Lang, President of the Higher Administrative Court of Bremen
- 1979-1995 Wilhelm Dodenhoff
- 1995-2002 Alfred Rinken
- 2002-2007 Jörg Bewersdorf
- 2007-2008 Matthias Stauch
- 2009-2011 Wolfgang Arenhövel
- 2011-2017 Hans Alexy
- 2017-2019 Uwe Lissau
- 2019-today Sabine Schlacke
Members
[edit]Members from 2007 to 2011 were Alfred Rinken (President), Matthias Stauch (Vice President from November 21, 2007, to May 13, 2008), Ilsemarie Meyer (since November 1, 2008, Vice President), Wolfgang Arenhövel (since May 5, 2009), Barbara Remmert (since March 18, 2010), Eckart Klein, Uwe Lissau and Ulrich K. Preuß.
From 2011 to 2015, members were Ilsemarie Meyer (President), Hans Alexy (Vice President), Ute Sacksofsky, Uwe Lissau, Elke Gurlit, Sabine Schlacke and Barbara Remmert.
From 2015 to 2019, members were 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.
Members from 2019 to 2023 were Peter Sperlich (President), Sabine Schlacke (Vice President), Anatol Anuschewski (lawyer in Bremen), Wolfgang Grotheer, Stephan Haberland (Vice President of the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Bremen), Katja Koch (judge at the Lower Saxony Higher Administrative Court) and Maria Ülsmann (lawyer in Bremerhaven).
Amtierende Mitglieder sind seit dem 12. Oktober 2023 Peter Sperlich (Präsident), Sabine Schlacke (Vizepräsidentin), Stephan Haberland (Vizepräsident des Hanseatischen Oberlandesgerichts in Bremen), Julia Heesen, Pia Annika Lange, Dieter Riemer und Lilian Stybel (Richterin am Oberverwaltungsgericht Bremen).
The election of the members of the State Court, which had until then 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 parliamentary group, three candidates from the SPD, two from the CDU and one from the Greens were elected by consensus. While the FDP did not put forward its own nomination in 2007, the Left parliamentary group, represented by seven members, saw itself disadvantaged in terms of the state constitution[ disadvantaged and nominated Mitra Razavi, a graduate lawyer and economist, as its own candidate.[2] She was elected as deputy to member Uwe Lissau.
Development of the proportion of women
[edit]Louise Frentzel was the first female member of the State Court of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen from February 26, 1964, to November 27, 1967, and thus the only woman there between 1949 and November 1, 2008.
The all-male composition of the committee, decided by the citizens in 2007, was criticized by the women's representative of the state of Bremen and the Bremen Women's Committee.[3] 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 public bodies.”. The Bremen Parliament had "blatantly disregarded the constitutional mandate" because "it is now acknowledged that there are a large number of professionally and politically well-qualified female lawyers, including judges," so that "the previous argument of a lack of female candidates no longer applies." The validity of the criticism was then recognized by the parliamentary group leaders of the governing parties, Carsten Sieling (SPD) and Matthias Güldner (Alliance 90/The Greens).[3]
In 2007, the proportion was 38.5 percent of the members of parliament. In the parliamentary groups, women made up 45.5 percent of the SPD, 30.4 percent of the CDU and 50 percent of the Greens. Since November 1, 2008, Ilsemarie Meyer was president of the Higher Administrative Court of Bremen and a natural member of the State Court of Justice, of which she became president in 2011, the first and so far only woman in this office, and held this position until June 30, 2019.[4] In March 2010, Barbara Remmert became a member of the State Court. She was the first woman elected since Louise Frentzel (1964–1967).
Remmert was unanimously elected by the Bremen Parliament as the successor to Peter M. Huber.
In the election of judges for the 18th legislative period of the Bremen Parliament in November 2011, five of the seven members of the body were women. Der Frauenanteil des Gerichts stieg bis 2011 damit auf rund 70 Prozent.
Sabine Schlacke has been vice president since 2019. In 2023, four women were elected to the State Court.
See also
[edit]Literature
[edit]- Koch, Claudia: Die Landesverfassungsgerichtsbarkeit der Freien Hansestadt Bremen Geschichte, Organisation, Zuständigkeit, Verfahren, (Diss. Kiel) Berlin 1981, ISBN 3 428 04846 6.
- Rinken, Alfred: Staatsgerichtshof, in: Kröning, Volker / Pottschmidt, Günter / Preuß, Ulrich K. / Rinken, Alfred (Hrsg.), Handbuch der Bremischen Verfassung. Baden-Baden 1991, S. 484–546, ISBN 3-7890-2310-8.
- Jörn Ketelhut: Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit im ZweiStädteStaat. Der Staatsgerichtshof der Freien Hansestadt Bremen. In: Werner Reutter (Hrsg.): Landesverfassungsgerichte: Entwicklung – Aufbau – Funktionen. Springer, 2017, ISBN 978-3-658-16094-4, S. 139.
- Ilsemarie Meyer: Der Bremische Staatsgerichtshof. In: Lothar Probst, Matthias Güldner, Andreas Klee (Hg): Politik und Regieren in Bremen. Springer VS, Bremen 2022, ISBN 978-3-658-34573-0.
External links
[edit]- Homepage des Staatsgerichtshofes
- Mitglieder und stellvertretende Mitglieder des Staatsgerichtshofs Bremen von 1949 bis 2007 (PDF; 49 kB)
- Übersicht der Rechtsprechung vom Staatsgerichtshof Bremen
- Amtswechsel im Staatsgerichtshof im Dezember 2011
References
[edit]- ^ Bremen (2007). Monsees, Horst (ed.). Landesverfassung der Freien Hansestadt Bremen: mit Gesetz über das Verfahren beim Bürgerantrag und Verfassung für die Stadt Bremerhaven. Bremen, Bremische Bürgerschaft. Bremen: Ed. Temmen. ISBN 978-3-86108-625-3.
- ^ NWZ online: Parteienstreit um Besetzung des Staatsgerichtshofes. 17. Oktober 2007. Abgerufen am 18. November 2010.[dead link]
- ^ a b Hülsbergen, Gisela (2007-10-18). "Beschluss zur rein männlichen Besetzung des Staatsgerichtshofs". www.bremtec.de/. Archived from the original on 2016-04-25. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
- ^ "Staatsgerichtshof der Freien Hansestadt Bremen - Frühere Mitglieder". Retrieved 2021-01-23.