VMware Suit Concludes in Germany

Posted Apr 2, 2019 16:51 UTC (Tue) by marcH (subscriber, #57642)
Parent article: VMware Suit Concludes in Germany

> this ruling does not set precedent and the implications of the decision are limited.

IANAL and especially not a German one but it seems that organizations from English speaking countries regularly overestimate the importance of precedence in Civil Law systems.

VMware Suit Concludes in Germany

Posted Apr 2, 2019 21:48 UTC (Tue) by pbonzini (subscriber, #60935) [Link] (2 responses)

Well it's not just organizations but also audience, so it makes sense for them to point that out.

Also, the equivalent of the US Court of Appeals (e.g. in Italy the Corte di Cassazione) can set a "weak precedent" even in Civil Law systems, because their sentences are usually taken into account by lower courts even if strictly speaking they don't have to.

VMware Suit Concludes in Germany

Posted Apr 3, 2019 2:24 UTC (Wed) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link] (1 responses)

I bet precedence does matter in most civil law systems (especially from a high court) however it's nowhere near as sacred as in the US and much more rarely presented in courts. Judges will consider precedence but they will not automatically assume it was right and not necessarily feel bound by it.

VMware Suit Concludes in Germany

Posted Apr 3, 2019 10:49 UTC (Wed) by jezuch (subscriber, #52988) [Link]

The difference here is that in Common Law the courts have the power to create laws while Civil Law jurisdictions reserve this right to the legislative branch only; the courts may only interpret the law. Courts make decisions strictly on a case-by-case basis, but they definitely do look at decisions made by other courts in similar cases. Over time a consensus emerges and a "judicial interpretation" of the law is established (there are also other interpretations which have to be taken into account, one of them based on the presumed intent of the lawmakers, for example).

IANAL As Well of course