The Adjudication of the German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) in the Last 55 Years - A Quantitative and Comparative Approach

Abstract:     
Today, many law journals can be accessed electronically. This is not only convenient but it also offers the interesting possibility of a quantitative analysis. In the US, this is already quite common, and there is no reason why this should not also be pursued in other countries. This short article employs quantitative methodology in order to analyse the adjudication of the German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH). It considers all decisions of the BGH which have been published in the major German law journal NJW (Neue Juristische Wochenschrift) between 1951 and 2006 (in total: 27,562 decisions). A future piece will also provide comparable data for the United Kingdom. For a comparison, the present article will limit itself to formulating some hypotheses as to whether comparable data relating to UK jurisprudence should be expected to yield similar or different results.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 16

Keywords: German Federal Supreme Court, German law, citations, legal methods, numerical comparative law

JEL Classification: K10, K40

Accepted Paper Series