The Role of the Labor Courts in Western Germany

Abstract

F ROM THEIR INCEPTION the labor courts have occupied an important and controversial position in the system of labor relations in Germany. Though it can claim much earlier ancestry, the labor court structure bears the heavy imprint of the Labor Court Act of the Weimar Republic. Since 1926, when this act was passed, and the present day, some three decades have elapsed. These thirty years have seen the labor courts pass from the Weimar Republic, through the Third Reich and the Allied Occupation, to the Federal Republic. With the exception of the Nazi epoch, the labor courts have played a significant part during this period in the development of modern German labor law, both the collective labor law and individual labor law. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the role of the labor courts in the development of certain aspects of the individual labor law, with emphasis on the post-World War II period. But first a brief glance might be given at the historical evolution of the present system of labor courts.