From The Local:
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung paper reported at the weekend that justice ministers of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hamburg, Roswitha Müller-Piepenkötter and Till Steffen respectively, aimed to change the law governing the German courts so that cases could be conducted in English.
The paper says many internationally-active businesses were used to negotiating and closing contracts in English, and made provisions to deal with disputes in the same language — ensuring that any court cases are heard in an English-speaking country.
“Germany as a legal centre suffers from the fact that court laws stipulate that German is the language to be used,” Müller-Piepenkötter said. “Foreign contract partners and parties in court cases are wary of dealing with things in a foreign language before a German court.” …
Thanks to David Wilson for the pointer.