The origins of the Palatine Court of Appeal are closely linked to the administrative reorganisation of the area west of the river Rhine following the fall of Napoleon.

In 1815, after the end of French rulership, the royal Austrian and Bavarian regional administration had established a court of appeal in Kaiserslautern for this area of Germany.

The city to which the Bavarian king had felt connected since childhood was now the seat of the highest-ranking court in the Palatinate – probably to act as a balance to Speyer, where the government of the Rhineland was based.

The major achievements of the French Revolution – separation of powers, legal equality of all citizens, public viewing and the principle of oral presentation during court proceedings, as well as jury involvement – endured.

Only gradually, over a lengthy period of time, did French law become less significant - such as with the Reichsjustizgesetze coming into force on 1 October 1879, and the introduction of the German Civil Code on 1 January 1900.

Their close circle included numerous advocates and judges from the Zweibrücken court of appeal, such as Schüler, Geib, Savoye, Cullmann and Hoffmann.

The chaos of war forced the Higher Regional Court to move twice – first to Ludwigshafen and then to Kirchheimbolanden, where its operations were temporarily put to an end in March 1945 with the entry of American troops into the town.