The German Supreme Court (the Bundesverfassungsgericht) has a new Chief Justice and he is not only the youngest of all the Justices but the youngest Chief Justice in the history of the court. The 46-year-old Andreas Vosskuhle is a former Con Law professor and was elected onto the court only in May 2008. He was elected on a liberal ticket, but I do not expect the court to stray from the conservative path it has taken lately. Anyway. He is 46. I can feel nothing but envy. Supreme envy.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
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Viktor, thanks for the very interesting data. What is the background of this new judge - say, does he have studies in the US? what type of qualities are required to get to that position? are academics chosen?
ReplyDeleteThere is a tradition of half-half: half of the Justices are recruited from the upper Federal courts, usually the Bundesgerichtshof (the highest court for civil law and criminal law), and the other half from academia. His background is not foreign, unlike a lot of new professor he does not hold an LLM degree (shameful) and he did not do any comparative scholarship. Frankly, he is talendet enough to be appointed (not too talented) and boring and unopinionated enough to be appointed (not very opinionated). There you go. It's a bit like with politics.
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