Germany
2026
STATUSAbolitionist
EXECUTIONS 20260
SENTENCES0
- GOVERNMENT
- federal parliamentary republic
- CONSTITUTION
- May 23, 1949, became the constitution of unified Germany on October 3, 1990; amended several times, last in 2020
- LEGAL SYSTEM
- civil law; recognizes ICJ jurisdiction as mandatory with reservations
- LEGISLATIVE SYSTEM
- bicameral Parliament (Parlament), Federal Assembly (Bundestag) and Federal Council (Bundesrat)
- JUDICIAL SYSTEM
- Federal Court of Justice (the court is composed of 127 judges, including the court president, vice presidents, presiding judges, other judges and organized into 25 senates divided into 12 civil chambers, 5 criminal chambers, and 8 special chambers); Federal Constitutional Court or Bundesverfassungsgericht (composed of 2 senates each divided into 3 chambers, each with a president and 8 members); Federal Administrative Court; Federal Finance Court; Federal Labor Court; Federal Social Court; each of the 16 federal states or Länder has its own constitutional court and a hierarchy of ordinary (civil, criminal, family) and specialized (administrative, financial, labor, social) courts; two English-speaking commercial courts were opened at the end of 2020 in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg: the English-speaking commercial court in Stuttgart and the English-speaking commercial court in Mannheim
RELIGIONS
Roman Catholic 26%, Protestant 23.7%, Muslim 3.6%, other 4.8%, none 41.9% (estimate 2021)