About LG2G – The Legal Guide to Germany

The project “The Legal Guide to Germany" was first introduced to the public in 2002, as a self-learning system. The idea of this portal has become so prominent that the Federal Marketing Agency of Germany, www.Invest-in-Germany.de has started in 2007 to copy the services of LG2G – even though having a different perspective. aims at helping citizens of other countries, either living in or coming to Germany, in gaining a reliable orientation toward their every day legal rights and responsibilities in Germany. LG2G is targeted at reaching the nonprofessional in law with the overall objective of providing a legal encyclopedia for the international community in English. Founder, Alexander Baron von Engelhardt, firmly believes “Integration" is the name of the game for newcomers both living and working in Germany. Otherwise it will be lose-lose situation”. He adds “Too many non-Germans could easily avoid basic legal situations had they only been better informed. The goal of LG2G is to provide this valuable awareness.”

Contents:

1.) Offered Products and Services 2.) The Editor 3.) How to Work with German Law 4.) The Authors 5.) Meaning of "§"

1.) Offered Products and Services

This portal offers products and services in three areas:

a platform for legal content and newsletters on topics of everyday concern for the foreigner in Germany,
the book "The Legal Guide to Living in Germany", further eLiterature, as well as Checklists for different needs,
space for advertisement to reach out to expats in Germany.

Newcomers with advanced knowledge about Germany are typically addressed with this presentation. Basic newcomers should first visit complementary sites like HowToGermany, the GermanWay, Just Landed, ExpatWomen, or read the free eBook "Unraveling an Enigma".

2.) The Editor

The editor is licensed as a Rechtsanwalt (lawyer / attorney at law / barrister / solicitor) by the Chamber of Attorneys Berlin. Please be aware that lawyers use legalese to either ward off understanding from clients or to scientifically discuss topics with colleagues. This publication will be working with you on something in between: a mixture of regular German and English language as well as a mixture of German and English legalese. For example, a German legal phrasing will be used as a synonym whenever it is difficult or inadequate to translate. Please allow a short example*: The English legal word "lease" translates into German legalese into either "Miete (lease)", "Pacht (usufructuary lease)", "Mietverhältnis (contractual relationship of lease)", or "Pachtverhältnis (contractual relationship of a usufructuary lease)". It is "frustrating" for a German lawyer to translate the words "Geldstrafe" and "Bußgeld" into English word "fine". Arggh.

As a humorous detail of the editor:

What American accent does Alexander have? His Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Midland
The South
North Central
Boston
The West
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on

If you have any suggestions to improve this presentation, feel free to forward your comments to the editor. Best send an eMail.

3.) How to Work with German Law

Law is normally considered as a book with seven seals. By reading the codes of German law, you will (theoretically) have a basic understanding of your situation. German codes are very structured and these structures are interdependent. In German law, the first thing you will notice is that the wording is highly abstract. Ordinarily, there is a general part consisting of definitions and general provisions in every code. These are followed by special provisions.

For matters of interpretation, it is necessary to know that if you are required to do 1, 2, 3, and 4 then you must meet all four conditions. If the statute talks of 1, 2, or 3, then you must meet at least one of the named conditions. In case the statute says you are to meet 1 or 2 and 3, then it will be sufficient just to meet 1 and 3, or to meet 2 and 3 – whichever applies.

Statutes in all countries are quoted differently. So, how am I to quote a German statute? “Art.” is short for Artikel, “§” means Paragraph (in English legalese “section”), “[Roman numerals] or Abs. / Absatz” refer to the paragraph of the section (in English legalese “subsection”), “[Arabic numerals]” refer to the clause of the quoted paragraph, and “[some kind of abbreviation]” names the statute. “§” will be used if one section is referred to and “§§” if two or more sections are referred to inside the same statute. These abbreviations are spelled out and, if necessary, quickly explained in the list of abbreviations. The Federal Ministry of Justice has recently started launching a translation of the Civil Code and this service is being integrated into the portal. More and more, you will be finding citiations of the German Civil Code available in English.

Notice also that German attorneys and judges usually do not think in precedents, but more in terms of a certain section of a statute and then in standing judgments of

the federal courts (BGH, BFH, BVerwG, and BVerfG)
the higher regional courts (OLG, OVG)
the county courts (AG), and regional courts (LG) (regional court),
if all these fail, then the deciding judge is left to the legal academic literature or decide upon his interpretation of the law.

To find out what German “law” is, a German lawyer will always want to have a statute, and, supplementing it, implementing ordinances and other statutory instruments. And after having considered those texts, he will be interested in case law. In some areas, the text of the law has become of hardly any value and case law determines their meaning. Whenever legal interpretations require special or extraordinary measures, attorneys and judges will rely on previous court rulings.

4.) The persons writing on this portal are:

	Alexander Baron von Engelhardt www.vonEngelhardt.com	He signs responsible for everything that is not signed by another contributing author.
	Fabian Stoffers www.RA-Stoffers.com	His signature is "FS". His subject for the one-time donation is labor law.
	More contributors are welcome !

* = Donald R. Black J.D., "Legal English" in ESL as an LSP Target Langauge: When is "Legalese" the right choice?

5.) Meaning of § - §§§§

To give you a hint how “dangerous” or difficult a legal matter might be, I have added a rating to show the difficulty of legal problems. To show the difficulty of a legal matter, I am using 1 to 4 “§” at the end of an answer. The following table will show what is meant with the “§s”. This rating is purely my own opinion based on my professional experiences. Other persons will surely have differing opinions.

§	very easy.	You really should be able to manage this legal problem on your own. You need to hire an attorney only if this will cost you too much time and/or money. OR: The legal scenario is very clear to your advantage.
§§	fairly easy	You have good chances to manage this legal problem by yourself. Yet, if you have tried without success, hire an attorney. OR: The legal scenario is fairly clear, i.e. in most cases, to your advantage.
§§§	complicated	It would best be to get legal advice, however you might try to first “threaten” with an attorney. OR: The legal scenario is not really clear to your advantage or somewhat trickey.
§§§§	very complicated	It is not recommended to solve this without professional legal advice. You must hire an attorney. This remains true even if the legality is very clear. OR: The legal scenario is very clear to your disadvantage or very trickey.