Christiane Dreusicke, president of the municipal court of Potsdam, shed light upon the problems the judiciary faced in the former GDR after the reunification of Germany in 1990. She provided the audience with an insight into the process of replacing the politically corrupt and ineffective justice in Eastern Germany, controlled by the state and the Socialist Unity Party, by a judicial system that resembles established Western German structures. The employment of staff with integrity, the adoption of the West German basic law and the evocation of respect for the rule of law were among the main challenges to be met in the judicial sector during the early years of German unity.

During the second lecture senior public prosecutor of the Federal State of Brandenburg, Martina Spiecker, presented background information on the composition and history of the German judicial system and explained tasks and responsibilities. The audience followed the lecture with great interest and raised a number of questions which focused on the practical implementations of the restructuring of the judicial system.