Amtsgericht

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The Amtsgericht in Zehdenick Zehdenick Amtsgericht.jpg
The Amtsgericht in Zehdenick

An Amtsgericht (Local Court) in Germany is an official court. [1] These courts form the lowest level of the so-called 'ordinary jurisdiction' of the German judiciary (German Ordentliche Gerichtsbarkeit), which is responsible for most criminal and civil judicial matters. [2] The German Amtsgericht may be compared to the magistrates' courts in England and Wales, although it has much broader sentencing powers. Its name derives from the Amt as a denomination for an administrative and court district in many of the territories of the Holy Roman Empire.

The main areas of an Amtsgericht's jurisdiction are:

In criminal cases, the court may be composed of either one professional judge, where the expected sentence is not more than two years imprisonment, or 1-2 professional judges and 2 lay judges where the expected sentence is more than two years imprisonment. A single judge is still able to impose up to four years imprisonment.

There are 640 Amtsgerichte in Germany, [3] whose jurisdictional area typically comprises a small number of towns or municipalities. The next higher level of ordinary jurisdiction is called the Landgericht . The term Amtsgericht may also refer to the building where the proceedings take place.

References

  1. "Amtliche Bezeichnungen Deutscher Gerichte" [Official designations of German courts](PDF) (in German). Federal Foreign Office. 2 August 2024 [July 2012]. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 March 2024.
  2. Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz (German Judiciary Act) §12, English translation
  3. "Deutschland Insolvenzgerichte Amtsgerichte". www.liste-amtsgerichte.de.