Who judges the judges?

Dear Reader,

The Verfassungsgericht is the highest authority in Germany. Seated in Karlsruhe in the far south, the court’s job is to decide whether new legislation is compatible with the constitution, far from the noise of the Hauptstadt.

But what happens when those sages in red seem a little too close for comfort to the grubby world of Berlin politics?

The current head of the court is Stephan Harbarth, a lawyer who spent nine years in the Bundestag for the conservative CDU party. During this time he voted on a series of laws he has since been involved in judging.

That’s not the only unusual thing about Harbarth. He is a lawyer by training, not a judge. 

While seated in the Bundestag he carried on his work for a law firm he had founded and which counts Volkswagen among its clients.

The Constitutional Court. Photo: Wikipedia Commons

His outside earnings during that time reportedly amounted to over a million euros a year, an eye-watering sum which appears to contradict rules stating that MdBs…