German Legal System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

German Legal System - Essay Example The move toward political unification in the 19th century was accompanied by a trend toward legal unification, particularly in commercial matters. In other areas of law, however, the prerogatives of each political entity still governed and only after the attainment of political unification under Prussian dominance in 1871 were a start made on drawing up German legal codes (Berle & Means, 2005). Moreover, the impact of Nazi ideology was greatest on the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure. This is because, the Code of Criminal Procedure was distorted almost beyond recognition by the activities of the Nazi-inspired People's Court, in which those convicted of crimes against the state were often sentenced to death (Berle & Means, 2005). The Law on the Reform of Civil Procedure was adopted on 27 July 2001 was the main issue within the Germany legal system in early 21st century. This reforms were designed to prepare the German judiciary for the 21st century against the background of scarce financial and personnel means, the overall goal of the reform law was to enhance efficiency and transparency by reducing the duration of civil proceedings while at the same time maintaining the high level of legal protection traditionally offered by German courts (Berle & Means, 2005). Yes there is room for improvement. The Law on the Reform of Civil Procedure can be strengthened on the issue the proceedings at first instance. The role of the first instance in general can be enlarged by limiting the standard of review at second instance (Berle & Means, 2005). Qn.2 My attitude to pre-contractual negotiations and discussions differ in 3 jurisdictions, in regard to legal responsibilities in each country (Australia, china and Germany) because the differences approaches applied pre-contractual negotiations and discussions can be explained by historical or cultural factors. This is because the laws relating to pre-contractual negotiations and discussions originate from specific historical or cultural factors of the country they are applicable. Qn.3 In Germany, a supervisory board not only has the power of supervising the board of directors and company operation, but also of supervising the financial affairs of the corporation and making business decisions to a certain extent (Berle & Means, 2005).The supervisory board has the duty of submitting their work reports to the supervisory board. In such a case, the supervisory board is not only the supervisory institution but also the decision-making institution of the corporation and has authority over the board of directors. In china, according to the Company Law, the shareholders' meeting has the authority of electing both directors and supervisors of a company whereby the boards are obliged to submit their reports to the shareholders' meeting for review and approval (Berle & Means, 2005). A supervisory board should have no less than three members and among them there should be a proper proportion of employee representatives. Unlike the German practice where the proportion of employee representatives is stipulated by law, the Chinese law leaves this to the articles of association of a company (Berle & Means, 2005). Australia should introduce supervisory board into its legal system. This is due to the fact that, in the modern global economy, competition exists not only in products but also in corporate governance systems. Therefore, reviewing Australia's current corporate