Oxford LibGuides: Germany : legal resources: Cases

German court decisions (Entscheidungen)

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Alternative name: Beck Online

Beck online is the most comprehensive online database of German legal materials, and includes the full text of Staudiger, the full BGB, which will all be online very shortly. Primary and secondary materials are available in full text, and are easily searchable from user friendly web pages.

Entscheidungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichts (BVerfG)
Official website of Federal Constitutional Court provides online database of full German texts of decisions since 1 January 1998. Press releases on leading cases available in English

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The texts are the official ones; they are identical with the printed versions that the Court mails on request. Also offers RSS news feed. Suggested citation style for our German language decisions on our web site: BVerfG, [file reference] of [date], [paragraph no.], http://www.bverfg.de/. Free for non-commercial use.
Entscheidungen des Bundesgerichtshofs (BGH)
Free for non-commercial use. Database of decisions from 2000 onwards. Note: These are in German only. In the left hand column you will see Dokumentsuche search box. In the field
"Aktenzeichen" you can put in the case number. Civil cases start with have Roman numerals, eg XII ZR 17/04, while criminal matters have Arabic numerals, eg, 5 StR 231/03.
Entscheidungen des Bundesarbeitsgerichts (BAG)
Official website Database from 2010 onwards
Entscheidungen online des Bundesfinanzhofs (BFH)
Official website. Decisions from 2010 onwards
Entscheidungen des Bundessozialgerichts (BSG)
Official website.Most in German only. Selected decisions in English.
Entscheidungen des Bundesverwaltungsgerichts (BVerwG)
Official website. Database of recent decisions (German only).
Entscheidungen des Bundespatentgerichts
Official website. Database of decisions from 2000 Note short cuts in left hand column
Justizportal des Bundes und der Länder (Federal And State Justice Portal)
Free resource. Portal of Links to Federal and State Court websites, most of which include free access databases of recent court decisions & RSS feeds for alerts when new decisions are published.
JusMeum: Rechtsprechung (Germany)
Free resource.(JusMeum also offers free app for German case law)
Informationsverbund Asyl & Migration Rechtsprechungsdatenbank
Free resource."Informationsverbund Asyl und Migration e.V. is Germany’s main independent institution providing background information for asylum and migration practitioners.

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The association’s main area of activities is the documentation and analysis of German jurisprudence in asylum and migration matters. Accordingly, legal matters feature strongly in its main publications, Asylmagazin and www.asyl.net. In addition, Informationsverbund is editor of further publications which cover a wide range of topics. Both the Asylmagazin and asyl.net also feature sections on country of origin information. Furthermore, Informationsverbund has been a founding member of www.ecoi.net and contributes German language content to this site."

It will be harder to find translations of decisions into English. These web sites have small collections of "leading" cases

German Law Archive
Free resource. "The German Law Archive publishes cases, statutes, literature and bibliographies on German law in English language."
Foreign law in translation: German decisions
Free resource. From School of Law, University of Texas at Austin. Leading cases in constitutional, administrative, tort, contract and restitution Law

Printed Resources

	Semi-Official Series
BVerfGE	Entscheidungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichts	German 100 E90
BAGE	Entscheidungen des Bundesarbeitsgerichts	German 100 E70
BVerwGE	Entscheidungen des Bundesverwaltungsgerichts	German 100 E100
BSGE	Entscheidungen des Bundessozialgerichts	German 100 E80
BGHZ	Entscheidungen des Bundesgerichtshofes in Zivilsachen	German 100 E61d
BGHSt	Entscheidungen des Bundesgerichtshofes in Strafsachen	German 100 E61g

The law journal below publishes civil/commercial law decisions. It can be the quickest way to find recent decisions in print.

NJW-RR NJW-Rechtsprechungs-Report, Zivilrecht German 300 N25

Style of law reporting & judicial practice

If new to this jurisdiction, the article by Markesinis "Judicial style and judicial reasoning in England and Germany" (2000) 59 CLJ 294 is recommended. Holders of an Oxford SSO can also read this journal article via the link below.

Cambridge Law Journal
Requires Oxford SSO for remote access. (2000) 59 CLJ 294

The European Legal Duty of Conforming Interpretation by Martin Brenncke
Call Number: General 510 B838.7a
ISBN: 9781780682693
Publication Date: 2018