The legal position of the Public Prosecutor General of the Federal Court of Justice

The Public Prosecutor General of the Federal Court of Justice and the federal prosecutors are proposed by the Federal Ministry of Justice with the agreement of the Federal Council (Bundesrat) and appointed by the Federal President (Bundespräsident) (§ 149 GVG).

The Federal Public Prosecutor General, federal prosecutors, senior prosecutors and prosecutors of the Federal Court of Justice are civil servants appointed for life. However, the Federal Public Prosecutor General has a particular position: As a political civil servant (§ 54 Para. 1 Clause 5 BBG), he can be sent into temporary retirement by the Federal Minister of Justice at any time and without further justification.

The Office of the Federal Prosecutor is not part of the judicial power. As the prosecutor of the Federal Government, the Office of the Federal Prosecutor organisationally belongs to the executive branch. It is subject to the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (§ 147 Clause 1 GVG). The Federal Minister of Justice is thus politically responsible to the Federal Government and parliament for the activities of the Office of the Federal Prosecutor.

As the prosecutor of the Federal Government, the Office of the Federal Prosecutor has no authority to instruct the prosecutors of the individual federal states. The prosecutors of the federal states are answerable to the Prosecutors General of the federal states and the State Ministers of Justice. However, under certain statutory provisions, the Office of the Federal Prosecutor can cede proceedings from its field of responsibility to the state prosecutors’ offices or seize jurisdiction of a case from them.