Berlin - A 44-year-old legal scholar, Andreas Vosskuhle, was elected Friday to a judgeship that puts him on track to later become one of the youngest men ever to hold Germany's top judicial position. In a unanimous vote in the Bundesrat upper chamber of parliament, Vosskuhle, currently head of a university, was appointed to a 12-year term on the German Constitutional Court. He will immediately be made its deputy president.
The post, replacing retiring justice Winfried Hassemer, would put him directly in line to become presiding justice in two years' time. Usually that topmost post is held by people in their 50s.
The Constitutional Court and the German High Court share the apex of the German judicial system, with the first court ruling on the constitutionality of laws and the other having ultimate authority to decide general legal issues.
The search for a judge to be nominated by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Social Democratic coalition partners had caused tension with Merkel's own Christian Democrats for months. But when Vosskuhle's name was put forward, he was welcomed by both sides.
Vosskuhle, who became head of his university's legal research institute in 1999, is currently rector, or chief executive, of the University of Freiburg in Breisgau in southern Germany.
