It was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, that famous Russian lawyer (although in his later years he didn’t practise much), who said that before storming a train station, German revolutionaries would first buy a platform ticket.
Nowadays there are no platform tickets any more, but German revolutionaries have found other ways to ensure they go about their business in an orderly fashion. One such way is to apply to the Bundesverfassungsgericht, the Federal Constitutional Court. This court, unique among institutions in Germany, has the power not only to overrule every other court in the land on constitutional grounds but also to set aside laws and regulations promulgated by the German Federal Parliament as being unconstitutional. And it has done so repeatedly in matters affecting the legal profession, thereby contributing more to its liberalisation (I am tempted to say: liberation) than anyone else, including the members of the profession themselves and their elected representatives.
