Learn the term together with its function.
The three technical terms are easier to remember when linked to activities: making laws, carrying out state functions and adjudicating. A judicial decision belongs to the third function. Its name is the judiciary.
Article 92 of the Basic Law entrusts adjudication to judges. It names the Federal Constitutional Court, the federal courts provided for in the Basic Law and the courts of the states. The judiciary therefore means a branch of state power, not just one particular court.
The other three answers
Similar-sounding terms do not mean similar functions.
executive.
Executive means the branch carrying out state functions, especially government and administration. A judicial judgment belongs to adjudication rather than administrative action.
operative.
“Operative” is a distractor here. It is not one of the three branches meant in this question. A similar word ending does not make it a constitutional branch.
legislative.
Legislature means the lawmaking branch. Passing a law through parliamentary procedure differs from a judge deciding a particular legal case.
A legal profession is not the same as a branch of state power.
Not everyone with legal training works as a judge. Working professionally with laws does not automatically place someone in the judicial branch. The particular function matters.
Belonging to the judiciary does not put judges above the law. Article 97 protects their independence while also subjecting them to the law. The branches have different functions within one legal order.
Article 92 · Basic Law ↗Judiciary = adjudication = courts.
Practise the pair “judge – judiciary”. For the other two, use “lawmaking – legislature” and “government/administration – executive”.
Three words for this question
- die Judikativejudiciary
- The adjudicating branch of state power.
- die Legislativelegislature
- The lawmaking branch.
- die Exekutiveexecutive
- The branch executing state functions, including government and administration.