Pact for the rule of law, that sounds good, but it’s not that easy. It’s about a lot of money and the question of who pays it. Even in the time of the grand coalition, there was initially discord between the federal and state governments. But they were harmless compared to the muddled situation today. The justice ministers of the federal and state governments will meet in Berlin on Thursday – but it is unlikely that there will be a solution then.
The traffic light government wrote in the coalition agreement that the pact for the rule of law would be consolidated and expanded to include a digital pact. The states understand it so that the federal government for job creation at least continues the funding from the previous legislative period, at that time the states had received a total of 220 million euros for 2000 new jobs in the judiciary.
The federal states are demanding a further 350 million euros from the federal government for digitization. The offer from Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) is far below the wishes of the federal states. He doesn’t want to promote job creation any further, because he sees only the states as responsible for constitutional reasons. And for digitization he is offering 50 million euros for the coming year, and another 150 million for the years 2024 to 2026.
One pact, four pillars
Buschmann has now further specified his ideas. This emerges from a letter from the head of the digital department to the budget rapporteur of the Bundestag, which is available to the FAZ. There is hope in the Federal Ministry of Justice that the willingness to reach an agreement will be promoted if the federal states know exactly what they can get. However, it is quite possible that exactly the opposite is happening. Because the four pillars on which Buschmann wants to base the pact do not correspond to the ideas of the countries in various respects.
It starts with the fact that Buschmann sticks to only promoting digitization, not job creation. The two clauses of the coalition agreement – to consolidate the pact and expand it to include a digital pact – have become one: the “Pact for the Digital Rule of Law”. The first pillar of this pact has nothing to do with financial support for the federal states. The point here is that the Federal Ministry of Justice develops digitization projects itself, which up to now only the federal states have done. Among other things, projects for the development of a digital legal application office, for the feasibility of a nationwide judicial cloud or for audiovisual documentation of the main hearing in criminal cases are mentioned.
The second pillar, which according to Buschmann’s forecasts will tie up a large part of the total of 200 million for the next four years, provides for the federal government to fund “specific digitization projects of the federal states”. The federal states can apply with ideas, the federal government examines and decides. In this way, Buschmann wants to ensure that the funds flow exclusively earmarked for the digitization of the judiciary.
The federal states are likely to have difficulties with this federal control. Buschmann also envisions that the principle of “one for all” is a prerequisite for funding. This means that the applications developed must meet uniform standards so that they can later be used by the entire judiciary. The letter expressly states that the funds should not be used to complete the electronic file, but that is exactly what the federal states want. As the fourth and final pillar, Buschmann bodies present themselves as the cooperation between the federal and state governments.