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Dodging the Draft: Federal Constitutional Court Evades Review of Germany's Military Service Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

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The incendiary image of German soldiers, serving as members of a proposed UN peace keeping force assigned to the Palestinian territories, formed the emotionally-charged and highly controversial backdrop to the Constitutional Court's recent consideration of the constitutionality of Germany's military/civil service obligation. The conflict in the Middle East aside, the military/civil service obligation has also emerged as a hot domestic issue as the campaign for the September federal elections catches its stride. Given this political climate it is hardly surprising that the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) opted to dismiss, on procedural grounds, two cases that posed distinct but related challenges to Germany's military/civil service obligation. It is, however, precisely the Court's explicit recognition of the politically-loaded nature of questions concerning Germany's military/civil service obligation that makes its decision in the first of the two cases remarkable.

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Other
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 3 , Issue 5 , May 2002 , E2
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

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