The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (the FCC) has delivered its decision on the complaint against the German ratification of the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court (UP-CA). The FCC has declared that the Parliamentary Act of Approval to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court to confer sovereign powers on the Unified Patent Court is void on the ground that the German Parliament did not vote with the required majority (2/3 according to the judgement). The decision was taken by a 5:3 majority.
In its reasoning, the Senate stated that, in order to safeguard their right to influence the process of European integration by democratic means, this, in principle, also entails the right of citizens that sovereign powers be conferred only in the ways provided for by the Basic Law. An act of approval to an international treaty that has been adopted in violation thereof cannot provide democratic legitimation for the exercise of public authority by the EU or any other international institution supplementary to or otherwise closely tied to the EU.
