Headscarf during legal training

CAN A HEADSCARF-WEARING MUSLIM WOMAN UNDERGO LEGAL TRAINEESHIP?

Summarized: The decisive factor is whether or not the respective federal state prohibits the headscarf during the legal traineeship. 

 A legal trainee who wears a headscarf for religious reasons can defend her right to do so with the freedom religion guaranteed under Article 4 of the German Basic Law.¹ A headscarf ban which represents an encroachment of a fundamental right must therefore not only have legal authority backing it but also constitutional justification.² According to the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court, a headscarf violates state neutrality when the legal trainee is regarded as a representative of the state.³ This is especially the case during the hearing of evidence in the civil station, as sitting representative for the prosecution and at board meetings in the administrative station.⁴ 

The state exerts a special influence on the external character of the official acts which the trainee needs to carry out, which is why they themselves are attributable to the state.⁵ The Federal Constitutional Court makes it clear that none of the colliding legal positions have such a predominant weight over the other which constitutionally forces the prohibition or allowance of the headscarf during legal traineeship or in the office of judge.⁶ Rather, the court delegates conflict resolution upon the lawmaker who may refrain from a prohibition.

All in all, it is the regional lawmakers who decide whether or not the headscarf should be prohibited in legal traineeship or not.

^{1 Federal Constitutional Court from 14.01.2020, 2 BVR 1333/17, margin 77.} 

^{2 See above, margin 82.}

^{3 See above, margin 90.} 

^{4 See above, margin 95.}

^{5 See above, margin 90.}

^{6 See above, margin 102.}