Rechtsstaat and Rechtsstaatlichkeit in Germany
Original contribution by Matthias Koetter, Research Associate at the Berlin Social Research Center(WZB) and within the Research Cluster SFB700 on "Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood: New Modes of Governance?" at Freie Universitaet Berlin.
| Panel |
|---|
Rechtsstaat (the law-based-state) and Rechtsstaatlichkeit (the German variant of the rule of law) are core concepts of German constitutional thinking. Canonized t ogether with the principle of democracy, the concepts of the republican, federalist and social welfare state and the indispensable guarantee of the human dignity they refer to a 200-year-tradition . From the perspective of a formal understanding, the term Rechtsstaat describes the type of state architecture and political order system in which all publicly applied power is created by the law and is obliged to its regulations and underlies numerous fragmentations of power and control mechanisms ("Bindung und Kontrolle"). Rechtsstaatlichkeit in this sense is a collective term for numerous (sub-)principles that allow the taming of politics by the law and shall avoid arbitrariness. From the perspective of a more substantive understanding, Rechtsstaatlichkeit also expresses democratic concerns and the respect to individual human freedom and equality and thus the commitment to a liberal and just constitutional order. In Germany, both perspectives are represented and both relate to the totalitarian unlawful regime established inbetween 1933-45 as an anti-model. The discourse is strongly characterized by the self-certainty of a role model Rechtsstaat formed by the Grundgesetz (GG), the German constitution. From this, integrating the German state into transnational networks will always require adequate provisions for the strict law-based exercise of power. |
...
Thus, terminologically, Rechtsstaatlichkeit according to the Grundgesetz can be differed from individual human rights and from the principle of democratic rule. However, the parallel historical development of these conceps will always determine each others meanings, and they can only unfold completely embedded in a context that encompasses the whole canon. Even if the liberal and secular state may feed upon preconditions that it cannot guarantee itself (Böckenförde), it may intend to preserve the moral, social and political grounds of democracy and Rechtsstaatlichkeit by adequate institutional and legal structures. In this regard, the Grundgesetz not only contains the principle of the social welfare state as a binding constitutional objective (Art. 20 I GG), but it also allows public school supervision (Art. 7 GG), it ensures free information by broadcast and press (Art. 5 I GG), and it protects religiously guided conveying of values and meaning in an individual and a collective dimension (Art. 4 GG). Rechtsstaatlichkeit in the sense of a German understanding of the rule of law will always be bound to the context of the democratic and social constitutional state.
| Panel |
|---|
BibliographyErnst-Wolfgang Böckenförde (1969): Entstehung und Wandel des Rechtsstaatsbegriffs, in: Recht, Staat, Freiheit, 1991, 143 -169. Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde (1992): Art. "Rechtsstaat", in: Joachim Ritter et al. (Ed.), Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, Vol. 8, col. 332-342. Dieter Grimm (1980): Reformalisierung des Rechtsstaates als Demokratiepostulat?, Juristische Schulung, vol. 20, 704-710 Rainer Grote (2004): Rule of Law, Rechtsstaat and „Etat de droit", in: Christian Starck (Ed.), Constitutionalism, Universalism and Democracy: A Comparative Analysis, 269-306 Philipp Kunig (2001): Der Rechtsstaat, in: Peter Badura / Horst Dreier (Ed.), Festschrift 50 Jahre Bundesverfassungsgericht, 421-444 Stefan Martini (2009): Die Pluralität von Rule-of-Law-Konzeptionen in Europa und das Prinzip einer europäischen Rule of Law, in: Matthias Kötter/ Gunnar Folke Schuppert, Normative Pluralität ordnen: Rechtsbegriffe, Normenkollisionen und Rule of Law in Kontexten dies- und jenseits des Staates, 303-344 Neil D. MacCormick (1984): Der Rechtsstaat und die Rule of Law, Juristenzeitung 50, 65-70 Eberhard Schmidt-Aßmann (2005): § 26 Rechtsstaat, in: Josef Isensee / Paul Kirchhof (Ed.): Handbuch des Staatsrechts der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Vol. 1, 3rd ed., 541-612 Gunnar Folke Schuppert/ Christian Bumke (2000): Die Konstitutionalisierung der Rechtsordnung. Überlegungen zum Verhältnis von verfassungsrechtlicher Austrahlungswirkung und Eigenständigkeit des "einfachen" Rechts Katharina Sobota (1997): Das Prinzip Rechtsstaat Michael Stolleis (1990): Rechtsstaat, in: Adalbert Erler / Ekkehard Kaufmann (Ed.), Handwörterbuch der Rechtsgeschichte, vol. 4, col. 367-375 Brian Z. Tamanaha (2004): On the Rule of Law. History, Politics, Theory |
