3 ms·
While some things have indeed changed since 1979, it is not accurate that any crime for which a punishment of more than four years is expected is handled by pro
by rbehrends 14y ago
While some things have indeed changed since 1979, it is not accurate that any crime for which a punishment of more than four years is expected is handled by professional judges only.
Aside from magistrate judges (Amtsrichter), the only case where a German court sits in a criminal case as a trial court without a lay judge are the OLGs (superior state courts). This happens only if the crime is a war of aggression, treason, or creation of a terrorist organization.
(Not that there's anything wrong with courts that do not have jurors or lay justices -- the Netherlands seem to be doing fine without either.)
Crimes where the expected punishment is more than four years are tried before the penal senates of the regional courts (Landgerichte). They are composed of either one professional judge and two lay judges (Kleine Strafkammer) or three professional judges and two lay judges (Große Strafkammer). The Große Strafkammer can also sit with two professional and two lay judges if the case isn't too complicated.
(Incidentally, the idea of lay judges originated in Sweden. Germany adopted the model in the 1920s as part of the so-called Emminger Reform [1]).
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emminger_Reform http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emminger_Reform
- Xylakant 14y agoSigh I specifically looked that up because I was uncertain, but I still managed to get it wrong. Next time, I'll have the coffee first. Thanks for the detailled correction.
- com 14y agoThe Netherlands might not be doing as well as you might think. Things like the Chipshol debacle in the Netherlands shows that there is strong evidence of judicial collusion in a series of court cases - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipshol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipshol has a very superficial summary of something that I found quite shocking, involving public accusations of corruption, perjury, where one of the ex-judges involved was forced out as head of the Dutch anti-trust authority when it all blew open. Judges and lawyers seem to come from the same social circles, have gone to the same universities, members of the same clubs and so on. To access the conveyor-belt of promotions and opportunities, it is not inconceivable that a culture of "scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours" in a part of a small legal and judicial community in a small country could form. A system in which lay-people are involved may have to work a lot harder to pretend that biased judgements are fair.