4. Mai 2026
Just for fun :)
Educative purpose of a puzzle law game.
Educative purpose 1: Teach German students how to think about law, how to make law
Educative purpose 2: Teach German citizen how the legal system works, teach systematically disadvantaged humans how to do it
Most obvious idea: learning how to solve law tests. So called “Gutachten”, also known as a “legal assessment”.
Typical content of law tests in German legal education:
“Strafrecht”: Criminal law. Somebody hits somebody, three people interact with each other, and somebody loses money, somebody gets hurt. People “disrespect” the state.
“Öffentliches Recht”: Public law. Discusses the interaction between everything public and all else private. Third party participation. Focus on constitutional and administrative law.
“Zivilrecht”: Private law. Discusses the interaction between everything private. Be it individuals, animals, objects, nature, corporate structures.
Typical methodology and structure in law tests in German legal education:
Cornerstones are: The “Gutachtenstil”, and the “Auslegungskanones”. These are supplemented by interdisciplinary arguments such as sociology, law and economics etc. pp.
“Gutachtenstil”:
- The Basics – Core competence
a) Obersatz – hypothesis, about a consequence that a written, habitual or else recognized law orders
In German law, a comprehensive set of codified law enables a precise “name-dropping” of possibly relevant paragraphs. However, not all paragraphs are always fitting. A codified law is like a system trying to conceive an abstract model of reality. It is never perfect, only an approximation.
For example, a “Kaufvertrag” (purchasing contract on non-digital subjects) is defined in § 433 BGB. However, there are contracts with elements both related to some element of purchasing as well as elements of service, elements of business etc.pp. These kinds of contracts (like staying in a hotel for example) cannot be put into some specific category.
German law is extremely intricate: There is a high degree of abstraction and systemization. On the one hand, this allows for high density in legal rigorosity. On the other hand, it is extremely difficult to adapt German law to modern requirements. Its application is costly.
b) Definition – abstract definition, about the conditions a law includes. It is mostly semantic. Therefore, one must look at the words written in paragraphs. Additionally, economic, sociological and other disciplines take part in the discussion. One can imagine it like a box.
Most importantly: Boxes often are categories, and categories never manage to accurately represent, model every imaginable situation. Most important legal problems incorporate a discussion of interpretation of different boxes.
aa) How should boxes be defined?
bb) Are there any distinguishable borders between boxes?
cc) Does it make sense to create a lot of small boxes, or should one just focus on a single large box?
dd) Is there spillover between boxes? In the sense that there may probably never be an adequate opportunity to accurately determine whether box 1, 2, 3 are interconnected. (That is good for lawyers: There is wiggle room to interpret it, to or against participating parties’ favor in a specific trial situation or in a simulated law test.)
ee) This is basically the breaking point of a law exam in Germany: People do not need to learn anything by heart. People need to be aware that a legal system is imperfect and that the role of lawyers must be to interpret its gaps and holes adequately.
Examples: What constitutes an “object”: Physical objects, water, energy, heat, even data, be it physical or the information stored inside?
c) Subsumtion – Putting a specific situation into a box: See whether it fits or whether it does not fit into a predetermined box
aa) This is a little like the chicken-egg problem: In a practical test, one would never decide for some specific definition xyz and then tell to oneself that a specific test situation does not fit. Rather, as a loopback, one should always “hochsubsumieren”. Meaning: Definitions one makes depend on the outcome of the test one decides for.
bb) This action is often overlooked in a law test: Yes, abstract definitions and a meta-level discussion on them is necessary, but one must not overlook the importance of accurately applying it on the specific test situation.
cc) A puzzle game would use artificial intelligence trained on well written tests with high scores to “help” the player write a good “Subsumtion”.
dd) Important: The length of a subsumption is often decisive for scoring. In German law tests, there is always intently too much stuff to discuss. It is called a “racing driver exam”.
d) Conclusion – State the result. On to the next game!
- Nesting – It is like a matroschka puppet
In German law, legal problems are overlapped into one another. Meaning: There is never one big blob of problem one could just write an essay about. No.
Multiple pre-determined “sets of knowledge” are necessary to be aware of. One could argue on the one hand, that this is unnecessary bloating, unflexible codification and so on.
Case in hand: The rigor of a legal structure must be and cannot else be determined other than be referring to precedence.
In Anglo-American Common law, judges are driving jurisprudence with verdicts. Scholars, lobbyists and practitioners are annex sources.
In German law, jurisprudence discussion is much more varied. Meaning: Apart from judges who set precedents and whose judgements may guide legal decision-making, it is to a large part legal scholars, legislative decisions (see the comprehensive legal codes often present) and then also practitioners who publish articles in journals, write papers, or else attempt to influence German jurisprudence in favor of their preferences, be it idealistic or else professionally motivated.
- Schwerpunktsetzung – Finding the Balance
Basics, and Nesting, are not necessarily the most challenging elements in a German law exam. No. Most often, grading assistants criticize the following issue: “The candidate did not accurately prioritize problems in the test.”
This needs training.
tbc