Rational Lawmaking under Review: Legisprudence According to the German Federal Constitutional Court

409 Pages·2016·4.71 MB·English

by  Klaus Meßerschmidt

Legisprudence Library 3
Klaus Meßerschmidt 
A. Daniel Oliver-Lalana Editors
Rational
Lawmaking
under Review
Legisprudence According to the German
Federal Constitutional Court
Legisprudence Library
Studies on the Theory and Practice of Legislation
Volume 3
Series Editors
Luc J. Wintgens, University of Brussels and University of Leuven, Belgium
A. Daniel Oliver-Lalana, University of La Rioja, Spain
Advisory Board
Aulis Aarnio, University of Tampere, Finland
Robert Alexy, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany
Manuel Atienza, Universidad de Alicante, Spain
Tom Campbell, Charles Sturt University, Australia
Paul J. Quirk, University of British Columbia, Canada
Jan-R. Sieckmann, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
Michel Troper, Université Paris Ouest-Nanterre (Paris X), France
Jeremy Waldron, New York University, USA
More information about this series at h ttp://www.springer.com/series/11058
Klaus Meßerschmidt (cid:129) A. Daniel Oliver-Lalana
Editors
Rational Lawmaking under
Review
Legisprudence According to the German
Federal Constitutional Court
Editors
Klaus Meßerschmidt A. Daniel Oliver-Lalana
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Facultad de Derecho
Erlangen-Nürnberg Universidad de Zaragoza
Nürnberg , Germany Zaragoza , Spain
ISSN 2213-2813 ISSN 2213-2856 (electronic)
Legisprudence Library
ISBN 978-3-319-33215-4 ISBN 978-3-319-33217-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-33217-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016943013
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
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Foreword
This new book in the Legisprudence Library focuses on the process of rational law
making according to the review practice of the German Constitutional Court. The
tradition of German constitutional law has, in many respects, provided the inspira-
tion for the theory of legislation widely labelled ‘legisprudence’, and we think that
now is an apt time to share and feed back into practice the accumulated body of
research on this topic. The editors of this volume have brought together a number of
contributions, each one refl ecting the unique perspective of its author, be that aca-
demic, legislative or judicial, to expose the intricate connections between judicial
review and the drafting and evaluation of legislation.
The idea of rational law making is not new, and the use of deductive reasoning as
a method in rational law making can be traced back to the seventeenth century when
natural law predominated in the European intellectual climate. These days, deduc-
tive reasoning and a priori thinking are less explicit in our legal discussions, but that
does not mean the attraction of ‘rational law making’ has diminished. What makes
the legislative process ‘rational’ is hard to pinpoint but not—however—impossible
to examine or consider.
Legisprudence as a theory of rational legislation is conceived of as a theory of a
practice, that is, a theory that cannot survive without practice. Practice, then, con-
sists in what courts do with rationality requirements. By uncovering the impact of
the German Constitutional Court on rational law, making this book fi lls a gap in
expertise and presents a nuanced view that balances constitutionalism, democracy,
proportionality, and separation of powers among other parameters.
F urthermore, and importantly, this book opens up to non-German speaking audi-
ences the practice of the German Constitutional Court. I applaud the editors for their
efforts to deliver a well-rounded, bird’s eye view of the Court’s contribution to ratio-
nal law making and to give the reader a comprehensive account of a complex pro-
cess of legislation that no longer exclusively belongs in the domain of the sovereign
legislator as an exclusively political agent.
v
vi Foreword
In the following 14 essays, ranging over rational legislation from the viewpoints
of MPs, academic and judges themselves, the German, non-German and
n on-E uropean reader alike will discover a rich source of inspiration to refl ect on the
rationality of norm production.
Leuven, Belgium Luc J. Wintgens
Contents
1 On the “Legisprudential Turn” in Constitutional Review:
An Introduction ....................................................................................... 1
A. Daniel Oliver-Lalana and Klaus Meßerschmidt
Part I Judicial Review, Democracy, and Legislation Theory
2 Constitutional Courts and Democracy. Facets
of an Ambivalent Relationship ............................................................... 19
Gertrude Lübbe-Wolff
3 Paths Towards Better Legislation, Detours and Dead-Ends ............... 33
Helmuth Schulze-Fielitz
Part II Judicial Review of Legislative Rationality
and Justifi cation
4 Rationality Requirements on Parliamentary Legislation
Under a Democratic Rule of Law .......................................................... 61
Bernd Grzeszick
5 The Generality of the Law ..................................................................... 89
Gregor Kirchhof
6 On Constitutional Duties to Give Reasons for Legislative Acts .......... 129
Christian Waldhoff
Part III Judicial Review of Legislative Consistency
and Systematicity
7 The Obligation of Consistency in Lawmaking ..................................... 155
Christian Bumke
vii
viii Contents
8 Inconsistent Legislation .......................................................................... 189
Matthias Rossi
9 Judicial Review of Tax Laws: The Coherence Requirement
(Folgerichtigkeitsgebot) ........................................................................... 209
Roland Ismer
Part IV Judicial Review of Legislative Facts and Impacts
10 Legislative Margins of Appreciation as the Result of Rational
Lawmaking .............................................................................................. 235
Christian Bickenbach
11 Due Post-legislative Process? On the Lawmakers’
Constitutional Duties of Monitoring and Revision .............................. 257
A. Daniel Oliver-Lalana
12 Efficacy, Effectiveness, Efficiency: From Judicial
to Managerial Rationality ...................................................................... 295
Ulrich Karpen
13 Symbolic Legislation Under Judicial Control ...................................... 315
Angelika Siehr
Part V Legislative Balancing, Proportionality,
and Process Review
14 Rational Lawmaking, Proportionality and Balancing ........................ 349
Jan Sieckmann
15 The Procedural Review of Legislation and the Substantive
Review of Legislation: Opponents or Allies? ........................................ 373
Klaus Meßerschmidt
About the Authors .......................................................................................... 405
Index ................................................................................................................. 409
Chapter 1
On the “Legisprudential Turn”
in Constitutional Review: An Introduction
A. Daniel Oliver-Lalana and Klaus Meßerschmidt
C onstitutions are not laid down in an attempt to transform any theory of r ational
lawmaking into positive constitutional law but to settle the procedures by which
laws can be validly enacted, to enshrine those basic values and fundamental rights
that laws have to respect or protect, and to establish which policies and collective
goods lawmakers are expected to foster. Yet, what may be derived or not from con-
stitutional texts—or analogously ranked legal documents—largely depends on their
authoritative interpreters, most notably constitutional judges. And these judges may
well construe the substantive, formal and procedural mandates of a constitution in a
way that obligates lawmakers to legislate better, i.e. more rationally. When embark-
ing on such a construal, courts are juridifying tenets and insights that usually belong
to the aspirational realm of legisprudence (cf. Wintgens 2 012 ). Thus constitutional
texts—enriched through judicial doctrines—might turn out indeed to comprise a
normative theory of lawmaking, at least in outline. Seen from the reverse angle, it
would appear that there exists a constitutional, legally binding dimension to legis-
prudence. The aim of this book is to explore this dimension in the light of the case
law of the German Federal Constitutional Court ( Bundesverfassungsgericht , herein-
after BVerfG) and the approach to rational lawmaking which underlies it.
O ver the last decades, the German Court has been remarkably active in applying
legisprudential criteria or yardsticks when reviewing parliamentary laws that affect
fundamental rights and key constitutional norms such as the principles of propor-
tionality and s ubsidiarity. On certain occasions, it has even taken the 1949 Bonn
A. D. Oliver-Lalana (*)
Facultad de Derecho , Universidad de Zaragoza, Ciudad Universitaria ,
Zaragoza E-50009 , Spain
e-mail: [email protected]
K. Meßerschmidt
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg ,
Lange Gasse 20 , D-90403 Nürnberg , Germany
e-mail: [email protected]
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 1
K. Meßerschmidt, A.D. Oliver-Lalana (eds.), Rational Lawmaking under
Review, Legisprudence Library 3, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-33217-8_1