Gerichtliche

Gerichtliche is a German adjective meaning pertaining to the court or to the judiciary. It is used to describe things connected with courts, judicial proceedings, or the administration of justice. In legal language it often precedes nouns to indicate that an action, decision, or authority occurs within the formal court system.

Common uses include phrases such as gerichtliche Entscheidung (court decision), gerichtliche Verhandlung (court hearing), gerichtliche Verfügung (court order), and gerichtliche Zuständigkeit (judicial jurisdiction). The term can appear in statutes, legal opinions, court documents, and scholarly works dealing with German law or comparative law.

In contrast to außergerichtlich, which means extrajudicial or out of court, gerichtliche refers specifically to actions or circumstances that take place within a court or under judicial authority. It is also distinguished from juristisch, a broader term meaning legal in a general sense, which can refer to law outside strictly court proceedings.

Grammar and usage note: gerichtliche is the inflected form used with feminine singular or neuter singular nouns after a definite article (for example, die gerichtliche Entscheidung or das gerichtliche Verfahren). It follows standard German adjective declension rules and can appear in attributive or predicative positions depending on sentence structure.

Etymology: the adjective derives from Gericht (court) with the adjectival suffix -lich, forming a term that denotes relation to the judicial system. The word has no culinary sense in modern usage, where Gericht can also mean “dish,” but in this context it unambiguously refers to law and the judiciary.