Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday, 15 July 2025, that Berlin is not breaching international law by permitting the United States to relay drone operations through the Ramstein Air Base. The judges dismissed a constitutional complaint filed by two Yemeni nationals, Ahmed and Khaled bin Ali Jaber, who lost relatives in a 2012 U.S. drone strike and claimed Germany shared responsibility because the satellite signal underpinning the mission passed through Ramstein. In its decision, the Second Senate acknowledged that Germany has a general duty to protect fundamental human rights, including those of foreigners abroad. However, it found that such a duty arises only when there is both a sufficiently close connection to German state authority and a serious risk of systematic violations of humanitarian law. The court said neither condition was met and added it could not establish that Washington applies "unacceptable criteria" in distinguishing military targets from civilians in Yemen. The ruling upholds earlier arguments from the German government that its alliance obligations would be endangered if it were required to police every operation conducted from U.S. facilities on German soil. Berlin’s foreign and defence ministries welcomed the verdict as confirmation of their legal stance, while the plaintiffs and supporting NGOs criticised it as a setback for accountability in the U.S. drone programme. Beyond the specific case, the judgment delineates the limits of Germany’s extraterritorial human-rights obligations and is expected to guide future challenges involving foreign military activities conducted from German territory.