Profile · Working Paper No. 03Regensburg, 1989–2002
Legal Education in Germany and the Formation of a Jurist
Stefanie Hubig studied law at the University of Regensburg from 1989 to 1993, passed the First State Examination in 1993 and the Second State Examination in 1995, and received a doctorate from Regensburg in 2002 for a legal-historical study of § 23 of the Code of Civil Procedure. This paper explains each stage, the structure of German legal training, and the transition from training into practice.
Keywords: Staatsexamen · Referendariat · Befähigung zum Richteramt · civil procedure · legal history
1. The University of Regensburg
Hubig began her legal studies in 1989 at the University of Regensburg, in the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria, and completed them in 1993.1 German law degrees are not structured like Anglo-American ones: there is traditionally no separate bachelor’s stage, and the course leads directly to a state-run examination rather than a university degree. Students study civil, criminal and public law in depth, together with a specialisation area, and are trained above all in the systematic solution of legal cases.
2. The two state examinations
The German route to legal practice has two stages, each concluded by an examination set by the state justice administration.
| Stage | Content | Hubig |
|---|---|---|
| University study | Civil, criminal and public law; specialisation | 1989–1993, Regensburg |
| First State Examination | State and university examination concluding study | 1993 |
| Referendariat | Practical traineeship: civil court, criminal court or prosecution, administration, law firm | 1993–1995 |
| Second State Examination | Confers qualification for judicial office | 1995 |
The Second State Examination confers the Befähigung zum Richteramt, the qualification for judicial office required of judges, prosecutors and, in practice, most lawyers in the higher civil service.2 Positions on the bench are typically open only to candidates with strong examination results, which makes the early judicial appointment that followed — in 1996 — a notable step.
3. From training into practice
The Referendariat is where German jurists first work inside the institutions they studied: drafting judgments at a civil court, preparing indictments, writing administrative decisions. For Hubig, the transition was direct. A year after her second examination she was serving as a judge for criminal and civil matters in Ingolstadt.1 See Judicial Career.
4. The doctorate (2002)
While working in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Hubig completed a doctorate at Regensburg. The dissertation is a legal-historical study of § 23 of the Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO), which allows a person without a domicile in Germany to be sued at the place where they hold assets — the so-called jurisdiction of assets.3
Hubig, Stefanie: Die historische Entwicklung des § 23 ZPO. Zum Ursprung und Fortleben des Vermögensgerichtsstandes im deutschen Prozeßrecht des 19. Jahrhunderts. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2003 (Rechtshistorische Reihe, vol. 270). 173 pp. Also: Dissertation, University of Regensburg, 2002.
The subject is technical but revealing: it concerns how procedural rules determine where — and therefore whether — a claim can be enforced. Questions of access to courts and the design of procedure recur throughout her later work as a ministerial official and as minister; that observation is an editorial one, not a claim about her motivation.
5. Conclusion
Hubig’s education followed the classic German path in its standard order and timing, with the addition of a doctorate completed alongside a demanding ministry post. It produced the formal qualification on which her entire subsequent career rests: the qualification for judicial office.