German lawyers and politicians are hashing out plans to safeguard the country's highest court from being undermined by potential anti-democratic governments in the future, following controversies in fellow European Union member states Poland and Hungary.

The success of the populist far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), sections of which have been deemed a threat to the constitutional order by intelligence agencies, appear to have focused minds. The AfD is currently polling at around 20% nationwide.

The Bundesrat, the parliamentary chamber representing Germany's 16 states, already set out a 14-page draft law in early February that seeks to anchor the rules governing the Federal Constitutional Court in the constitution itself, making it more difficult for future governments to change them.

The German constitution, or Basic Law, includes three articles that determine how the Federal Constitutional Court's 16 judges are elected. Currently, half of these are nominated by the Bundestag, the federal parliament, while the other half are nominated by the Bundesrat.

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But according to the draft law, there are crucial "gaps" in the Basic Law that threaten the court's independence: Specifically, there is no requirement for a two-thirds majority to appoint new judges, there is no limit on a judge's tenure, and no ban on judges being re-elected. All these rules are only set out in the "Act on the Federal Constitutional Court," a regular law that could be changed by a simple majority in parliament. In........

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