The German Bundesrat is a legislative body that represents the sixteen Länder of Germany at the federal level. The Bundesrat meets at the former Prussian House of Lords in Berlin. Its second seat is located in the former West German capital of Bonn.
Overhang seats are constituency seats won in an election under the traditional mixed-member proportional (MMP) system,when a party's share of the nationwide votes would entitle it to fewer seats than the number of individual constituencies won. The electoral reform in Germany removed the overhang seats,and replaced with Zweitstimmendeckung.
Freedom of religion in Germany is guaranteed by article 4 of the German constitution. This states that "the freedom of religion,conscience and the freedom of confessing one's religious or philosophical beliefs are inviolable. Uninfringed religious practice is guaranteed." In addition,article 3 states that "No one may be prejudiced or favored because of his gender,his descent,his race,his language,his homeland and place of origin,his faith or his religious or political views." Any person or organization can call the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany for free help.
Peter Aloysius Müller is a German politician belonging to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). From 1999 to 2011,he has held the position of Premier (Ministerpräsident) of the state of Saarland,serving as President of the Bundesrat in 2008/09. In December 2011,Müller was elected as judge of German Bundesverfassungsgericht.
Gitta Connemann is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the German Parliament since 2002. Since 2021,she has been serving as the chairwoman of MIT,the pro-business wing in the CDU/CSU.
Helmut Brandt is a German politician,member of the CDU,and Legal Counsel (Justiziar) for the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group. He has been a member of the Bundestag since 28 June 2005,when he replaced Karl-Josef Laumann,who had been appointed a minister in North Rhine-Westphalia. Brandt,a lawyer by training specialising in criminal law,was mayor of Alsdorf in North Rhine-Westphalia from 1994 to 1999,having been a councillor there since 1978.
Jan-Marco Luczak is a German lawyer and a politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since 2009,representing the Berlin-Tempelhof-Schöneberg constituency until 2021,and as a party list member since.
The Federal Constitutional Court is the supreme constitutional court for the Federal Republic of Germany,established by the constitution or Basic Law of Germany. Since its inception with the beginning of the post-World War II republic,the court has been located in the city of Karlsruhe,which is also the seat of the Federal Court of Justice.
Michael Grosse-Brömer is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since 2002.
Ingve Björn Stjerna is a German lawyer,known for having filed in 2017 a constitutional complaint with the German Federal Constitutional Court against the ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court in Germany. In April 2017,his complaint led the German Constitutional Court to ask the President of Germany to suspend the ratification of the Agreement. His complaint,which was assigned court case reference 2 BvR 739/17,was upheld by the Court.
Marco Buschmann is a German lawyer and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as Federal Minister of Justice in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's cabinet since 2021. He has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2009 to 2013 and again since 2017.
Florian Toncar is a German lawyer and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2021. He has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Baden-Württemberg from 2005 until 2013 and since 2017.
Thomas Heilmann is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Born in Dortmund,North Rhine-Westphalia,he has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Berlin since 2017.
Ansgar Guido Karl Johannes Heveling is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2009.
Günter Krings is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2002.
Nina Warken is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Baden-Württemberg since 2013.
2 BvR 739/17 is a case decided on 13 February 2020 by the German Federal Constitutional Court in which the Court decided that the Act of Approval,i.e. for the ratification,of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court of 19 February 2013 (EPGÜ-ZustG) in Germany was null and void,because it had not been approved by the German federal parliament sitting with the required quorum.
Ute Granold is a German politician and member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU). She was a member of the German Bundestag from 2002 to 2013,where she was most recently the chairwoman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid.
Lobbying in Germany,as in many other parliamentary democracies,plays a significant role in the development of legislation. Lobbying has existed in Germany since 1956,when the Federal Constitutional Court issued a ruling legalizing it. A mandatory lobby register was introduced in Germany effective 1 January 2022,along with a code of conduct.
Hans-Joachim Jentsch was a German lawyer and politician (CDU). He was a member of the German Bundestag from 1976 to 1982,mayor of Wiesbaden –the capital of Hesse –from 1982 to 1985,a member of the Landtag of Hesse from 1987 to 1990,minister of justice in Thuringia from 1990 to 1994,and a justice of the Federal Constitutional Court from 1996 to 2005.
