(de-news.net) – The German Judges Association (DRB) has urged lawmakers to renew and extend the so-called ‘Rule of Law Pact’ as a means of addressing persistent staffing shortages and delays in digital modernization affecting parts of the judicial system. According to the association, chronic understaffing in prosecutors’ offices and criminal courts has increasingly impaired their capacity to manage growing caseloads efficiently, leading to prolonged judicial proceedings and contributing to a gradual erosion of public confidence in the effective functioning of the rule of law.

Sven Rebehn, the Federal Managing Director of the DRB, warned that recent polling data indicating a decline in public trust in the judiciary should be interpreted as a serious and consequential signal. He stressed that federal and state governments must confront personnel deficits and the accumulated digital backlog at an early stage by means of a renewed and coordinated policy initiative, arguing that diminishing public support points to underlying structural weaknesses within the justice system. These concerns are reinforced by a December 2025 survey conducted by the Allensbach Institute, which documents a significant fall in public approval of the Federal Constitutional Court, from 81 percent in 2021 to 63 percent in 2025. What is more, the same survey found that an overwhelming majority of respondents criticized both excessive judicial workloads and the increasingly protracted duration of court proceedings.