Seven articles deal with the judicial department of the government. They make no important changes from the old constitution, except that courts-martial are forbidden except in time of war or aboard warships. An attempt by the parties of the Left to do away with state courts and place the dispensing of justice solely in the hands of the federal courts failed.
The second "main division" of the constitution deals with the "fundamental rights and fundamental duties of the Germans." Excluding fifteen "transitional and concluding decrees," the constitution contains 165 articles. No less than 56 of these, or more than one-third, are devoted to sections bearing the following titles:
The individual; social life; religion and religious societies; education and school; economic life.
The first ten articles, dealing with the individual, begin by declaring the equality of all Germans before the law. All titles of nobility are abolished, but they may be borne hereafter as parts of a name. Orders and decorations may not be conferred by the state, and "no German may accept titles or orders from a foreign government."[80] That part of the Bill of Rights contained in amendments i, iv, vi, and xiv of the American constitution is taken over in effect, but with much enlargement of the rights of the individual. Thus, to the provision for freedom of speech and the press is added the declaration that "no employment or salaried relation shall deprive any person of this right, and no person may prejudice him for making use of this right." Later, in the articles dealing with economic life, it is further provided:
[80] This goes even farther than the American constitution, which provides merely that "no person holding any office of profit or trust" under the federal government shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present or title from a foreign power. (Art. I, sect. 9, par. 8.)
"Freedom to associate for the protection and furthering of labor and economic conditions is guaranteed to every person and for all callings. All agreements and measures which endeavor to restrict or prevent the exercise of this freedom are illegal.[81]
[81] Under this provision workmen cannot be required to sign contracts binding them not to join labor-unions, nor can employers contract with each other not to hire members of such unions.