Bremen, Germany - A 44-year-old legal scholar, Andreas Vosskuhle, was officially nominated Friday for a judgeship that puts him on track to later become one of the youngest men ever to hold Germany's top judicial position.

In a move that observers say was cleared in advance with political opponents, Jens Boehrnsen, mayor of the city-state of Bremen, announced that the Social Democratic Party was nominating the scholar to be deputy president of the German Constitutional Court.

The formal election is to take place next Friday. Germany's parties take terms to nominate supreme justices. Boehrnsen led the party's selection panel.

The post would put him directly in line to become presiding justice in two years' time. Usually that post is held by people in their 50s.

The Constitutional Court and the German High Court share the apex of the German judicial system, with the first court ruling on the constitutionality of laws and the other having ultimate authority to decide general legal issues.

Vosskuhle, formerly head of a university legal research institute, is currently rector, or chief executive, of the University of Freiburg in Breisgau in southern Germany. (dpa)