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Due to the different History, the system of justice differs from the one in England; judges play a more prominent and active role in all stages of legal proceedings, but this is usual for a civil - law country.
Proceedings in Germany courts tend to be less controlled by prosecutors and defence attorneys. There is less emphasis on formal rules of evidence, which, in the common law countries, is largely a by - product of the jury system, and more stress on letting all the facts speak foe what they may be worth in the individual case.
In Germany the system of law is based partly on the old "Volksrecht" of the tribes, but during the times the roman law was overtaken and it modified the system of law.
As England is called a common - law country, German has to be called a civil - law country ; the civil law is orientated on the roman law. Theoretically al judicial decisions are based on legislative enactment's, and the doctrine of judicial predescent does not apply. But this works a bit different in practice, the legislative codes cover almost every aspect of human conduct and supply answers for all problems, in fact many of the provisions are vague or maybe do not fit to the special situation of a cases, so these gaps in the legislative schemes are filled by judicial decisions; but these decisions are not considered binding and this is one of the major differences to the system of law in England.
Several elements which are common in common - law countries are missing in Germany, but even if some people from these countries find the lack of certain elements of the adversarial process, particularly in criminal trials, difficult to reconcile with their notion of fairness.
While the codes and statutes are viewed as the primary source of law in Germany, the role of precedent is of great importance in the interpretation of legal rules. Administrative law, for example is case law in the same sense that there exists no codification of the principles relied upon in the process of reviewing administrative action. These principles are mostly judge - made law. This system of judicial review of administrative actions are an implementation of the rule of law; in this context the emphasis is on the availability of judicial remedies.
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