As outlin!, the Court’s judgment leaves a considerable degree of uncertainty or, in more positive terms, executive discretion to the German authorities on how to proce!. What seems to be clear already now is that they will most probably have to open an investigation into the role of Ramstein within the drone programme and to “ascertain” its compatibility with international law. This, however, is complicat! by the fact that the US enjoy far-reaching autonomy over of Forces Agreement (NATO SOFA) and its phone number database Supplementary Agreement.
The German authorities’ powers to access Ramstein Air Base under
Search, or in any other way intervene with the use of Ramstein Air Base are very limit! (see Articles 49, 53 and 53 lit(a) of the Supplementary Agreement).
Yet, even if an investigation finds the drone strikes operat! via Ramstein to be legally contentious, it remains unclear which measures the German government is expect! to take to discharge its positive obligation. On the one hand, the Court reiterates that it is the government to decide which “measures it deems appropriate” and 15 best b2b lead generation methods thereby leaves some room for manoeuvre. On the other hand, the Court mandates some kind of action that reasonably qualifies as “appropriate”.
This connects with the question
Which measures the German authorities can take at all. Surely, they might exercise, or increase, political and diplomatic pressure on the US. Whether this will yield any tangible results, seems doubtful, however. At the other end of the spectrum, the Germany government betting email list might take “hard” legal measures. Articles II and XVI of the NATO SOFA and Article 53 (1) of the Supplementary Agreement oblige the US to act in accordance with German and international law which would be a possible lever to make use of for the German government (see on that here). Yet, while certainly more promising in terms of effectiveness, it is, from a political perspective, rather unlikely that Germany is willing to go down this road.