The legal definition of the employment contract in section 611a of the Civil Code in Germany: An important step or does everything remain the same?

Abstract

For a long time, there was no legal definition of “employee” or “contract of employment” in Germany. This did change in 2017 when the lawmaker introduced the new section 611a into the Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch) which, however, is based on the existing judge-made law. This article first gives an overview of the definition of the courts (1.) and then presents the “new” legal regulation (2.). On this basis, the question will be discussed what has been achieved by the legislator (3.). The paper ends with a concluding remark (4.).