Statusverfahren nach § 97 ArbGG

German law provides for a special court procedure to determine collective bargaining power of trade unions and employer associations. The particularities of this procedure are statutorily only vaguely described and, since the so called CGZP-procedure, subject of intense debate. Being the first monograph on the subject, the paper looks into the possible scope of the procedure and the purpose of its statutory provision in order to derive consequences for the multiplicity of imminent questions in actual practice. In doing so, the paper scrutinizes to what extent the procedure is characterised by individual interests on the one hand and collective interests on the other. Guided by this approach, the broad direction to suspend other court procedures in Sec. 97 Para. 5 Sentence 1 Federal Labor Procedure Code and possible deductions in scope, the question of participation and hearing rights before court and the binding effect of the court’s judgment with regard to time are being examined.