Reichskammergericht
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The Reichskammergericht (Imperial Chamber Court) was one of two highest judicial institutions in the Holy Roman Empire, the other one being the Reichshofrat (Aulic Council) in Vienna. It was founded in 1495 by the Reichstag in Worms. All legal proceedings in the Holy Roman Empire could be brought to the Reichskammergericht, except if the ruler of the territory had a so-called privilegium de non appellando, in which case the highest judicial institution was founded by the ruler of that territory. Another exception was criminal law. The Reichskammergericht could only intervene in criminal cases if basic procedural rules had been violated.
The Reichskammergericht was infamous for the long time it took to reach a judgement. Some proceedings, especially in lawsuits between territories belonging to the Holy Roman Empire, took several hundred years. Some of the lawsuits were not brought to an end by the time it was dissolved in 1806, after the downfall of the Holy Roman Empire. Yet, lately it has been discovered that this could often be attributed to a loss of interest on the part of the parties involved, and that the court could sometimes be much more efficient than previously thought. Sometimes the court even ordered injunctions within a few days.
Membership of the court was determined by both the emperor and the component states of the Empire. The emperor named the chief justice (always a high aristrocrat), several presidents of the court senates, and some of the members of the court. The majority of the judges were selected by the estates of the Empire. Originally, half of the judges were knights of the empire, and the other half doctors of Roman law, but after 1548 all judges had to be doctors of law.
Recent research also brought to light that, especially in the 18th century, the rulings of the Reichskammergericht anticipated in many ways the constitutional establishment of civil liberties in Germany. For instance, the inviolability of one's housing or freedom of trade were legally introduced in the Empire by rulings of the court. At the end of the 18th century some contemporaries even compared the Reichskammergericht to the National Assembly in France.
External links
- [Society for Imperial Chamber Court Research, Wetzlar]
- [Museum and Research Centre of the Imperial Chamber Court]
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