Germany is a civil law country. Therefore, the legal system is mainly based on
written law, i.e. a constitution, codes and statutes. Besides the federal constitution
and federal statutes, there are state laws and every state has its own constitution.
However, the main areas of law, such as criminal law, civil law and commercial
law, are regulated by uniform federal codes, such as the Criminal Code
(Strafgesetzbuch, StGB), the Civil Code (B€urgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB), and the
Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch, HGB). German employment and labour
law is also largely governed by federal statutes. However, historically there has
been no unified employment and labour law code. The relevant law is fragmented in
several statutes and statutory gaps are filled by jurisprudence, which is therefore
particularly important in this field of law. In practice, this all makes the understanding
and application of German labour and employment law rather difficult for
both employers and employees.
German employment and labour law is to a large extent influenced by European
Union (EU) law, as the German legislature and jurisdiction have to comply with the
regulations and directives of the EU and their interpretation by the European Court
of Justice (Europ€aischer Gerichtshof, EuGH). For example, the EU Employment
Equality Directive 2000/78/EC prohibits discrimination against employees because
of their religion, disability, age, or sexual orientation. Germany has implemented
this EU Directive in 2006 by the German General Equal Treatment Act
(Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz, AGG).