judicial Officers.— The judges 04 'the Ger man courts are appointed by the sovereigns Of the individual states, with the exception of the judges of the Reichsgericht who are appointed by the Kaiser with the consent of the Bundesrat and must have passed the 35th year. No judge can be removed or transferred for other than legal reasons and without a legal procets. The training of judges is the same all over the Ger man Empire, After a post-graduate course of at least three ream in the department of juris prudence in a German university they must pass a rigid examination. They further receive practical training of three or four years in the different legal offices and after passing, a sec ond examination of a inr,re practical nature they are appointed judges whenever a vacancy occurs. The jurors are lay judges without 're muneration and decide only the question of guilt or innocence of the accused. A public prosecutor is connected with court who, in the case of the Amtsgericht. is a civil service officer of the middle rank, in 11 other cases a judicial, officer of the same training as the judges. With the exceptio of a few cases in which the interest of the is not directly concerned the public pros(' ttor must prosecute any case brought to his attention. Attorneys at law (and, in almost all states also netaries) have the same legal training as judges. In civil oases they are assigned to a certain court, in criminal cases they can practise at any court. The clerics of the courts are civil service officers who are trained in the principles of law.
Administrative Law,— Administrative law fixes the details of the organization of the gov ernment, determines the competence of the ad-. ministrative authorities and gives the individual, redress in case his rights are violated, This type of law is administered by special admin istrative courts of the different ,,states. These courts are at the same time purely administra tive bodies in local government. In Prussia: small executive committees of the circle and, the province, composed partly of lay members, partly of prOfessional administrative officers,. serve as administrative' courts of first and sec ond instance. In addition, Prussia has estab lished a supreme administrative court, the Oberverwaltungsgericht in Berlin. This is a. purely judicial body. No member can be lest than 30 years of age. Half of them must be judges, half of them qualified for the higher positions in the administrative service. They cannot be removed' except for legal' reasons. The empire as such has very little administrant tion of its own and consequently •there exists very little imperial administrative law with few imperial administrative. courts. • Some of them are the Railroad the Supreme Maritime Office, the Imperial-Insurance Office, the Patent Office, etc.
'Question of • Legality silty.— The question. whether 'Or not the
have a right to test the :legality' of laws,anti ordinances is 'disputed. The. majority of -wtitr: ersiconcede•the•rightito the courts:arguing teats the-privilege of.. applying the law duty of investigating its legal form. In Prtia-,; stai.however; a 'clause of the Constitution (Attu 106) expressly forbids the courts •tlz test theJ legality of properly proclaimed-. laws or royal,, ordinances. 'In regard to the•-queStion of •clei.) daring laws unconstitutional, the generaiiollity-w ion is...that the German courts have taii..tuahr: right. This is..also the. ottiniowof the Reida-t't geridit (in a.decision of .26 March.1901)...:fierril man jurisprudence considers lawmaking, as :an, act bf the sovereign who is superior, to the say, ) ants- of • the severest; i.e., judges or adnusts-:i trators.. It is trite that this situation leaves the ) whole field of oonttitutional law with little lewd/ protection, for the institution,. of impeaolimeuti has not; yet 'been. developed. The.priacipleuof ministerial responsibility, to be has beat: laid amen. in all constitutions of;:the einpine.n Softie of the individual states 'hate alse,tlaidi dawn the procedure. of impeachment. they empire itself: and in• the leadingii.state, Pia:sstai nettling but the principle is stated. ,Howearevi: in 'Prussia, and in some other states, 4 supenot) officer can submit the 'question 'to the Oberveti-4 waltungsaeritht whether • indicted . of4ciali under.. his authority, 'against whom criminal charges 'for acts done in-)his. -official. capacity haste been preferred, 'has violated' hit duty or'not. If this question is 'decided in the affirmative; the 'case is tried in the ordinary, courts. ' • Conflicts of Competeriee.-- It: be i seen that conflicts might arise as to .which-sett of courts, administrative or. ordinary, :a case should git. The leaves it • to:the ital.!, vidual states settle these :conflicts.; .Pruseiai and 'some' other states' have 'established,:speeiait Courts of • Competence '(KompetenzFerichtw shtife) 'composed of higher.administriatwe and judicial., officers. They deckle to which court case should go if both, administrative and ordi nary courts, claim. or reject a case.
Non-conteritiOus Jurisdletion.— In addi tion to the ordinary and the administrative, law the-so...coiled non-contentious jurisdiction must be mentioned. This is the' administrative' al sistance of courts or judicial officers in the Cre ation of 'private rights, It is usually peg/Stifled by the Amtsgeriehte. The subjects' of rtuul contentions jurisdiction . are: Registiatibri land; titles,- guardianshiP,!'reglstration mar.: rifige contracts and connviereali fienS, probate matters, and 'in' some states' authentication 'of documentt. • ' ' " ' ' '""