UP/UPC Update: Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court disallows the Bundestag’s UPCA ratification on formal grounds

In a decision announced today at 09.30 hrs, a majority of the concerned division of the German Federal Constitutional Court (5 out of 8 judges) disallowed the Bundestag’s ratification of the UPC Agreement on the basis that applicable majority rules had not been followed, thus granting the complaint at issue on formal grounds. Notably, the substance of the ratification was no basis for the disallowance. Contrary to the Court’s majority, its minority (3 out of 8 judges) found that such formal objections cannot, and for democratic reasons should not, form basis of a complaint in the Constitutional Court.

The formal deficiency which the majority pointed towards should be able to be cured but the details about it remain to be seen. The decision by the Constitutional Court is thus not perceived as a final word but rather as an instruction to the German legislator concerning the requirements for the ratification of the UPC Agreement to be considered constitutional. In practice, Setterwalls views this as a delay rather than anything else.

Read the Court’s decision summary in English here.

Read the decision in full in German here.