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I. The principle of Rechtsstaatlichkeit under the Grundgesetz
Originally, from 1949, the Grundgesetz related to explicitly names the Rechtsstaat only in Art. 28 GG where it regulated that the constitutional order within the Bundesländer whereby the constitutions of the federal states (Bundesländer) have to conform to the principles of the republican, democratic and social Rechtsstaat. A similar homogeneity rule points pointing to the international European level . The 1992 was included in Art. 23 Abs. 1 S. 1 GG regulates that, in order to support the realization of a European Union, the Federal Republic of Germany I GG in 1992 whereby the German state participates in the development of the European Union that is verpflichtet to democratic, must be obliged to the principles of democracy, the rule of law, sozial the social and federal principles state and the principle of subsidiarity and provides Human Rights provide basic human rights protection equal to this the Grundgesetz. " And since Since 2000, Art. 16 II 2 GG further allows , on the basis of a law, the extradition of a German citizen citizens to a member state of the European Union or to an international Court as court as long as the principles of the rule of law are preservedis observed.
The Grundgesetz expresses various rule of law principles in the rules on the state architecture and the structures of constitutional bodies and the human rights guarantees that comprise requirements for the organisation and procedure of the state. Art. 20 GG names several rule of law principles, however not the rule of law principle (vgl. German Constitutional Court, decision of December 15, 1970: 24): in par. 2 the principle of the separation of powers and in par. 3 the principle of the obligation of the legislation to the constitutional order, and of the executive and the judiciary to the law and justice ("Gesetz und Recht"). The predominance of the constitution and the law are based here upon and shape the legal order by the vertical hierarchy of norms. Rechtsstaatlichkeit in the German understanding also encompasses the unlawfulness of retroactive liabilities, the principle of proportionality, to dissolve conflicts between legal certainty and justice individually in hardship cases, and the principle of complete and effective judicial review in cases with relevance to individual freedom and property rights (Art. 19 IV GG; see German Constitutional Court ibid.). As a constitutional principle Rechtsstaatlichkeit compasses a multiplicity of principles that are shaped by the Grundgesetz. Katharina Sobota (1997) counts 142 (!). Further particular normative meanings of the principle of the rule of law are not generally approved.
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