1. Clientele and specialization

We aim to assist academic staff at Universities; justices, judges, magistrates and court staff, prosecutors and attorneys at law; government official and legislative assemblies from outside Germany who must deal with German criminal procedure, court constitution law, the German laws governing the application of national criminal law on extraterritorial criminal offenses and international judicial assistance in criminal cases.

2. Language options
Available language options are German and English. You can select the language you prefer using the flag signs at the top of the web forms provided for initial and further requests and for requests for additional legal sources.

3. Terms of use
Our terms of use will automatically appear, if you click “Terms of use and request”. You need to accept the terms of use expressly before filing your request. If you want to accept the terms of use click “accept and file request”. If you don’t want to accept the terms of use click “don’t accept and return to starting page”.

4. Initial requests
You can file initial requests only by electronic means of communication. If you want to file an initial request, first click “terms of use and request”. After reading the terms of use thoroughly, click “accept and file request”.
In the web form provided for initial requests, we will kindly ask you to enter certain personal information. We will handle your personal information strictly confidential and we will not use them for any other purpose than for communication. Mandatory fields are marked with a star sign (*). Information concerning the institution you are working for are mandatory because we can assist only a limited clientele (para. 1.). A valid email-address is required, because we will transmit all summaries and legal sources to this email-address.
You can type the details of your request in the field provided using daily language. Normally we can only respond to sufficiently specified requests indicating your precise question(s) of law. In exceptional cases only, we can respond to unspecified requests concerning the aforementioned fields of German law.

5. Receipt confirmation and confirmation of request
An automatic email will confirm the delivery of your request to the mailbox of ILES (receipt confirmation). A separate email will confirm that your request will be handled (confirmation of request). If you don’t receive a receipt confirmation or a confirmation of your request within due time, we kindly ask you to send your request again.

6. Summary
ILES will issue a summary in response to your request. In the summary we will directly respond to your questions of law. The summary will be created on the basis of German law and shall contain references to the relevant court decisions and academic literature.
In order to facilitate the further use of the legal sources submitted, the summary shall outline the main existing lines of argumentation in case law and academic literature. The summary, however, does not claim to be exhaustive.
You can find the name of the supervisor responsible for handling your request and the reference number in the header of the initial summary. If you want to file an additional request or a request for additional legal sources, you will be asked to enter these information.

7. Objectivity
All summaries issued by ILES are absolutely objective. All summaries exclusively outline legal opinions held by courts and in academic literature. None of our summaries provides any legal opinions held by ILES or by the supervisor responsible for handling your request.

8. Legal sources of and materials on German law
As far as possible, we will submit the legal provisions, judicial decisions and academic literature cited in the summary as PDF-files.

9. Additional requests
After the delivery of the initial summary and the legal sources cited therein to your email mailbox, the supervisor responsible for handling your initial request shall respond to additional questions of law as far as possible.
You can file additional requests only by electronic means of communication. If you want to file an additional request first click “terms of use and request”. ”. After reading the terms of use thoroughly, click “accept and file additional request”.
In the web form provided for additional requests, we will ask you to enter the name of the supervisor responsible for handling your initial request and the reference number. You can find both information in the header of the initial summary.
You can type your additional questions of law in the field provided for this purpose using daily language.
Apart from that the procedure applying to additional requests is the same as the procedure applying to initial requests.

10. Requests for additional legal sources
After the delivery of the initial summary and the legal sources cited therein, the consultant responsible for handling your request shall submit additional legal provision, court cases and academic literature as far as possible.
You can file requests for additional legal sources only by electronic means of communication. You will find the web form provided for this purpose on our home page. Using the primary navigation selection “Terms of use and request”, you can select “accept and file request for additional legal sources”.
In the web form provided for additional requests, we will ask you to enter the name of the consultant responsible for handling your initial request and the reference number. You can find both information in the header of the initial summary.
You can list the additional legal provisions, court cases and academic literature required in the field provided for this purpose.
Apart from that the procedure applying to request for additional legal sources is the same as the procedure applying to initial requests.

11. Handling time
We will handle all incoming requests in due time and in the chronological order in which they have been received. The period of time, we will need to handle incoming requests will vary and inter alia depend on their complexity and on the volume of legal sources to be digitized.

12. Statistic and assessment of our performance
We will count the number of incoming initial requests, additional requests and requests for additional legal sources. The results will be published on our homepage under “statistic and assessment”.
On the last page of all summaries, we will kindly ask you to assess our performance and we will attach the link to the web form provided for this purpose.
Your opinion is very important to us and will help us to optimize and assure the quality our performance.
The results will be published in absolutely anonymous form on out homepage under “statistic and assessment” and will be updated periodically.

13. Rules of good professional practice
Please note that the applicable rules of good professional practice possibly might require you to disclose the use ILES. We kindly ask you to check the relevant provisions in this regard.

• Terms of use