The German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) has published here the list of major cases which it intends to decide in 2020.  Each year, many cases listed are not decided and are carried over to the next year’s list, and, as would be expected, the constitutional complaint against the Unified Patent Court (UPC) legislation (case reference 2 BvR 739/17) remains on the list of cases in the Second Senate allocated to the rapporteur Justice Huber. However, although this UPC case (filed in March 2017) was on the 2018 and 2019 lists, Justice Huber expects it to be actually decided this year. As reported here, in November 2019 he said he intended to issue the decision “early next year”, although the timing would depend on the time it takes for him and the other judges to deliberate on and amend the judgment (there being a need for them to consider in detail its formulation and wording).

Of the seven other cases on Justice Huber’s list, five were carried over, including the “EPO case” (in fact four cases all concerning, in effect, Germany’s accession to the EPC). The two new cases, each brought by a parliamentary group, both concern the federal government’s alleged breach of the German constitution by not fully informing the Bundestag (federal parliament) before a decision of the EU Council was made in 2015 regarding people smuggling in the Mediterranean. Although these two cases are listed first (and the UPC case is fifth), cases are not necessarily decided in the order listed.