The Society of the Federal Republic of Germany

(Last modified September 2010)

A study seminar conducted in collaboration with students from the University of Kassel

In this study seminar, data from a qualitative case study on the biographical background, work situation, and normative orientation of German labor court judges will be systematically evaluated and interpreted. This data was collected as part of a study conducted at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research from 2007 to 2009 that drew on insights from the social sciences and legal studies. Thanks to this interdisciplinary perspective, the issues explored in this research are relevant to the sociology of inequality, conflict theory, and legal theory and relate to both individual actors and the administrative sphere.

Three key areas were addressed in this research. First, the study aimed to ascertain whether labor law’s chief function continues to be the protection of wage-earners or instead privileges those actors on the labor market who are already in a stronger position—and thus tends to reinforce existing inequalities. A second area of inquiry focused on the labor courts and their role within the welfare state system: to what extent can labor courts continue to serve as mediators of social conflicts in the world of employment? The third and central element of the study was an investigation of the work of judges in lower labor courts and state labor courts. Focused, semi-structured interviews with thirty-five judges from these courts throughout Germany were conducted between January and November 2008. Judges were asked to describe their normative self-understanding as conflict mediators and to explain what "concepts of order" they referred to in their role as unique social actors who influence changes in social policy and the world of labor. The findings from these interviews were complemented by insights gained in various talks with experts in the field of labor law.

Collection of empirical data has now been completed and the interview material is currently being evaluated and interpreted. A key element in this phase of work is typological interpretation of the interviews. Among the questions examined are labor court judges’ contributions to transformations in the world of employment and their integrative function in this process. Groups of judges who have similar modes of interpreting and assessing labor law will be identified.