Forms of judicial decision in different countries

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19 June 2024

Forms of judicial decision in different countries

Below is a brief overview of what court decisions look like in different countries. Such a comparison has, in principle, many difficulties. Court decisions are written in national languages, which makes comparison more difficult. Nevertheless, there are early attempts to facilitate discussions between representatives of different jurisdictions by translating court decisions into one language, mainly English. In the field of civil law in this context, first of all, court decisions are important, which are made on the basis of international trade law (UN trade law). In this area of law, court decisions are collected all over the world and at least partially translated into English.

Germany

The basis for a judicial decision in Germany is Section 313 of the Code of Civil Procedure. It outlines the structure of the judicial decision in Germany.

(1) A court decision must contain: the names of the parties, their legal representatives and procedural representatives; the name of the court and the names of the judges who made the decision; the date of completion of the oral proceedings; the operative part, the descriptive part, the reasoning part.

(2) The descriptive part should briefly state only the essential content of the rights claimed and the means of exercising claims and remedies provided, indicating the petitions filed. References to procedural documents, protocols, and other materials should be provided for the details of the case and dispute.

(3) The reasoning part contains a brief summary of the arguments from which the legality and validity of the decision follow.

Great Britain

In England and Wales, the basics are found in the Civil procedure rules. At the same time, the content of the court decision has developed significantly historically. And there they distinguish between the descriptive part ('facts') and the motivational part ('discussion'). When justifying a decision, however, first of all, previous decisions ('precedent') are taken as a basis. The judge's task is primarily to answer the question of whether the dispute in question is consistent with precedent and needs to be resolved in accordance with that precedent, or whether the dispute differs in one of the essential points. In the USA, the requirements for the content of a court decision are fixed in the Rules of Civil Procedure. They correspond to the English precedent model.

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Republic of Kazakhstan

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