21 February 2023

Strengthening Justice in Economic Disputes and Introduction of “Commercial Courts”

The Federal Ministry of Justice has just published a Framework Paper on Strengthening Courts in Economic Disputes and Introducing Commercial Courts (in German). Public accountants or chartered auditors could be affected by the plan if they appear before civil courts as expert witnesses.

The aim of the plan is to permanently strengthen Germany as a place for justice and business.

The main proposals are:

The possibility to conduct certain trade disputes in the English language before the regional courts;
Authorising the federal states to be able to set up trial special senates for major commercial trails in their higher regional courts (Commercial Courts);
More extensive protection of trade secrets.

A public hearing will be held in the Bundestag Legal Committee on 1 March 2023 (in German). In addition to the Justice Ministry’s framework paper, a draft law from the Bundesrat of April 2022 (PDF - in German) and a motion on the CDU/CSU motion of November 2022 on this subject will be discussed.

All