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The German Draft Legislation On the Prevention of Discrimination in the Private Sector

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Nicola Vennemann

Extract

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On 3 December 2001 the German Minister of Justice, Herta Däubler-Gmelin, presented a draft of legislation aiming at the elimination of discrimination in the private sector and declared her firm determination to have the law passed before the end of this parliamentary term. Presentation of the draft legislation complied with paragraph IX.10 of the Coalition Agreement of 20 October 1998, which anticipates these efforts.

Type
Research Article
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , March 2002 , E5
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

(1) The draft and an explanatory note can be found at: http://www.bmj.bund.de/images/11312.pdf. Please note: if this link does not work, please type the URL from hand. The draft document (67 pages) is at the address indicated in the link.Google Scholar

(2) Explanatory note to the draft, p. 18.Google Scholar

(3) Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Assembly, Official Records, Forty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 18 (A/48/18), 1994, para. 447; Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Germany. 23/04/97, CERD/C/304/add. 24.Google Scholar

(4) On the scope of the obligation resulting from these provisions see P. Rädler, Verfahrensmodelle zum Schutz vor Rassendiskriminierung, 1999, p. 43; R. Wolfrum, Das Verbot der Rassendiskriminierung im Spannungsfeld zwischen dem Schutz individueller Freiheitsrechte und der Verpflichtung des einzelnen im Allgemeininteresse, in: E. Denninger (ed.), Festschrift für P. Schneider, 1990, p. 524.Google Scholar

(5) Member States are bound to implement the directive by 19 July 2003, see art. 16 Council Directive 2000/43/EC.Google Scholar

(6) Art. 2 para.1 Council Directive 2000/43/EC.Google Scholar

(7) Draft §319a of the German Civil Code.Google Scholar

(8) Art. 3 para.1 Council Directive 2000/43/EC.Google Scholar

(9) Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 29 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation.Google Scholar

(10) Explanatory note to the draft, p. 19.Google Scholar

(11) Draft §319a of the German Civil Code.Google Scholar

(12) Art. 1 para. 3 German Basic Law: “The following basic rights are binding on legislature, executive, and judiciary as directly enforceable law.”Google Scholar

(13) See Pieroth, B./Schlink, B., Grundrechte, 2001, n° 175.Google Scholar

(14) Article 9 para 3 s. 1, 2 German Basic Law: “The right to form associations to safeguard and improve working and economic conditions is guaranteed to everyone and for all professions. Agreements which restrict or seek to impair this right are null and void, measures directed to this end are illegal.” Emphasis added by the author.Google Scholar

(15) See Kommers, D.P., The Constitutional Jurisprudence of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2nd ed., 1997, p. 315ff.Google Scholar

(16) BVerfGE 68, 274 (328); 70, 123; 72, 170; Erman-Hefermehl, vor §145, n°16; Palandt-Heinrichs, Überblick vor §104, n°1, Einführung vor §145, n°7.Google Scholar

(17) Kommers (fn. 15), p. 317.Google Scholar

(18) §138 para. 1 German Civil Code: “A legal transaction which offends public morals is void.”; §826 German Civil Code: “A person who wilfully causes damage to another in a manner contrary to public morals is bound to compensate the other for the damage.” For a discussion of the meaning of the German legal term “guten Sitten” see, Lords of Democracy: What the German Constitutional Court (in the Hessen Election Review Case) and the U.S. Supreme Court (in Bush vs. Gore) Are Telling Us About the State of Democracy, 2 German L. J. No. 4 (1 March 2001), available at: http://www.germanlawjournal.com/past_issues.php?id=53 Google Scholar

(19) BVerfG 7, 198 in: Decisions of the Bundesverfassungsgericht – Federal Constitutional Court – Federal Republic of Germany Vol. 2/Part I: Freedom of Speech, p. 5.Google Scholar

(20) Staudinger-Bork, Vorbemerkung zu §§ 145ff, n°24.Google Scholar

(21) §138 German Civil Code would for example be helpful in dealing with a sales contract relating to a house which contains a clause prohibiting the buyer to sell the house to people of other ethnic origin.Google Scholar

(22) For the scope of the recoverable damages, especially compared to damages recoverable under §823 para. 1 and §823 para. 2 in such cases see T. Bezzenberger, Ethnische Diskriminierung, Gleichheit und Sittenordnung im bürgerlichen Recht, AcP196 (1996), 395 (424ff).Google Scholar

(23) Bezzenberger (fn. 22), p. 431ff.Google Scholar

(24) Rädler (fn. 4), p. 46.Google Scholar

(25) Explanatory note to the draft, p. 18.Google Scholar

(26) Neue Juristische Wochenschrift-Rechtsprechungsreport 1993, 183.Google Scholar

(27) In favor of an obligation to contract Maunz/Dürig, Grundgesetzkommentar, Art. 3 Abs.I, n°516; against R. Kühner, Das Recht auf Zugang zu Gaststätten und das Verbot der Rassendiskriminierung, in: Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 1986, 1397 (1401).Google Scholar

(28) See for example Kühner (fn. 27) p. 1401.Google Scholar

(29) Explanatory note to the draft, p. 39.Google Scholar

(30) Draft article §319b of the German Civil Code.Google Scholar

(31) Explanatory note to the draft, p. 44.Google Scholar

(32) Explanatory note to the draft, p. 45.Google Scholar

(33) Explanatory note to the draft, p. 48.Google Scholar

(34) See Hailbronner, K., Die Antidiskriminierungsrichtlinien der EU, Zeitschrift für Arbeitsrecht 2001, p. 254 (258).Google Scholar

(35) Art. 15 Council Directive 2000/43/EC.Google Scholar

(36) For a first reaction see G. Thüsing, Das gleiche Bewußtsein bilden, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 7 February 2001, p. 11.Google Scholar

(37) BVerfGE 89, 276; R. Nickel, Handlungsaufträge zur Bekämpfung von ethnischen Diskriminierungen in der neuen Gleichbehandlungsrichtlinie 2000/43/EG, in: Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 2001, 2668 (2669).Google Scholar