As in most countries, Germany has a standard way of citing its legal codes and case law; an essentially identical system of citation is also used in Austria.
Legal journals use self-made "house" citation styles, and the most influential style guide probably are the Author's Instructions of the Neue Juristische Wochenschrift, arguably the most important legal journal in Germany.[when?
Finally, unless the context is clear, "(Germany)" may be added to distinguish this from the similar system of citation for Austria; again, paragraphs with the same number in German and Austrian legal codes are unrelated, except in laws that were introduced in Austria with the Anschluss in 1938, such as the AktG (Stock Corporations Act), which, of course, has frequently been amended in different ways in both countries since then.
Texts addressed at a purely legal audience commonly make use of an informal shorthand, abbreviating Absätze for example as Roman numerals.
The Basic Law (constitution) of Germany is divided into Artikel or articles, not sections.
Alternatively, cases may be cited to law reviews where they have been rendered, e.g. BGH, NJW 1982, 473.
Ideally, the date of the court decision and the docket number should be given before the citation, but whether this is required usually depends on the publisher.