Commercial Court

Commercial courts serve the settlement of commercial disputes. Following the example of the French Tribunaux de commerce Chamber were established later than in the nineteenth century in almost all European countries that were occupied to a part that mainly or exclusively with merchants. Even today there are commercial courts in many European countries - such as Germany, France, Belgium, Austria and in some cantons of Switzerland (namely Zurich, Bern, Aargau and St Gallen) - in different forms and with different responsibilities.

Judges who are active in commercial courts may be full-time, part-time or volunteer judges. The commercial judge part-time or volunteer are also referred to as a specialist judge. The addition of the courts with part-time judges is seen as technical complementarity of the courts.

Germany

In Germany there are so-called chambers for commercial matters, which may be formed at the district courts pursuant to § § 93-114 Judicature Act ( GVG ) and were usually formed. Such a chamber consists of one professional judge and two commercial judges ( § 105 para 1 GVG ). These chambers are responsible, to the extent a dispute between merchants present but also in disputes arising from a change in the sense of changing the law, on the basis of the Cheques Act, on the basis of the Law against Unfair Competition ( UWG) and in the area of trademark and design law. The chambers are only at the request of the parties active ( § 96, paragraph 1, § 98 GVG ).

Switzerland

A separate commercial court know the court systems of the cantons of Zurich, Bern, St. Gallen and Aargau.

The most famous is the Zurich Commercial Court. His great reputation in the judiciary and economy notwithstanding, it came in early 2009 in the criticism, as the Zurich lawyer Daniel Neuenschwander, former secretary of the court, in a book criticizing the selection of judges and the allocation of litigation to the individual chambers. Once here on several national newspapers reported that there was a - so far unanswered - cantonal parliamentary inquiry to the Zurich Cantonal Government.

Commercial judges

The commercial judges have formed national associations, which in turn are joined together in a European Union of judges in commercial matters ( Union Européenne des Magistrate Consulaire ).

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