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The Federal Constitutional Court (German: ''Bundesverfassungsgericht'', or ''BVerfG'') is a supreme constitutional court established by the constitution or Basic Law ("Grundgesetz") of Germany. Since its inception with the beginning of the Federal Republic of Germany, the court has been located in the city of Karlsruheintentionally distanced from the other federal institutions in Berlin (earlier in Bonn) and other cities. The main task of the court is judicial review, and it may declare legislation unconstitutional, thus rendering them ineffective. In this respect, it is similar to other supreme courts with judicial review powers, yet the court possesses a number of additional powers, and is regarded as among the most interventionist and powerful national courts in the world. Unlike other supreme courts, the constitutional court is not an integral stage of the judicial or appeals process (aside from cases concerning constitutional or public international law), and does not serve as a regular appellate court from lower courts or the Federal Supreme Courts on any violation of federal laws. The court's jurisdiction is focused on constitutional issues and the compliance of all governmental institutions with the constitution. Constitutional amendments or changes passed by the Parliament are subject to its judicial review, since they have to be compatible with the most basic principles of the ''Grundgesetz'' (per the 'eternity clause'〔Art. 79 s. III〕). The court's practice of enormous constitutional control frequency on the one hand, and the continuity in judicial restraint and political revision on the other hand, have created a unique defender of the ''Grundgesetz'' since World War II and given it a significant role in Germany's modern democracy. == Scope == Article 20 Section 3 of the Basic Law stipulates that all three branches of the state (the legislature, executive, and judiciary) are bound directly by the constitution. As a result, the court can rule acts of any branches unconstitutional, whether as formal violations (exceeding powers or violating procedures) or as material conflicts (when the civil rights prescribed in the ''Grundgesetz'' are not respected). The powers of the Federal Constitutional Court are defined in article 93 of the ''Grundgesetz''. This constitutional norm is set out in a federal law, the Federal Constitutional Court Act (BVerfGG), which also defines how decisions of the court on material conflicts are put into force. The Constitutional Court has therefore several strictly defined procedures in which cases may be brought before it: * Constitutional complaint: By means of the ''Verfassungsbeschwerde'' ("constitutional complaint") any person may allege that his or her constitutional rights have been violated. Although only a small fraction of these are actually successful (ranging around 2.5% since 1951), several have resulted in major legislation being invalidated, especially in the field of taxation. The large majority of the court's procedures fall into this category; 135,968 such complaints were filed from 1957 to 2002. *Abstract regulation control: Several political institutions, including the governments of the ''Bundesländer'' (states), may bring a federal law before the court if they consider it unconstitutional. A well-known example of this procedure was the 1975 abortion decision, which invalidated legislation intended to decriminalise abortion. *Specific regulation control: Any regular court which is convinced, that a law in question for a certain case is not in conformance with the constitution must suspend that case and bring this law before the Federal Constitutional Court. *Federal dispute: Federal institutions, including members of the Bundestag, may bring internal disputes over competences and procedures before the court. *State–federal dispute: The ''Länder'' may bring disputes over competences and procedures between the states and federal institutions before the court. *Investigation committee control *Federal election scrutiny: Violations of election laws may be brought before the court by political institution or any involved voter. *Impeachment procedure: Impeachment proceedings may be brought against the Federal President, a judge, or a member of one of the Federal Supreme Courts, by the Bundestag, the Bundesrat or the federal government, based on violation of constitutional or federal law. *Prohibition of a political party: Only the Constitutional Court has the power to ban a political party in Germany. This has happened just twice, both times in the 1950s: the Socialist Reich Party (SRP), a neo-Nazi group, was banned in 1952, and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) was banned in 1956. A third such procedure to prohibit the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) failed in 2003 after the court discovered that many of the party officials were in fact controlled by the German secret services that had injected its agents for the sake of surveillance. This was a 4–4 decision, which according to the court's rules is considered a dismissal. The court did not decide on the ban itself. Up to 2009, the Constitutional Court had struck down more than 600 laws as unconstitutional.〔Law, David S., ''The Anatomy of a Conservative Court'' in Texas Law Review lxxxvii: 1545–93〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Federal Constitutional Court of Germany」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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