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154-600: The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany ( Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland ) is the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany . The West German Constitution was approved in Bonn on 8 May 1949 and came into effect on 23 May after having been approved by the occupying western Allies of World War II on 12 May. It was termed "Basic Law" ( Grundgesetz ) to indicate that it

308-569: A federal state trying to legislate in an area that the constitution allocates exclusively to the federal parliament, such as ratifying a treaty. Action that appears to be beyond power may be judicially reviewed and, if found to be beyond power, must cease. Legislation that is found to be beyond power will be "invalid" and of no force; this applies to primary legislation, requiring constitutional authorization, and secondary legislation, ordinarily requiring statutory authorization. In this context, "within power", intra vires , "authorized" and "valid" have

462-402: A students' union may be prohibited as an organization from engaging in activities not concerning students; if the union becomes involved in non-student activities, these activities are considered to be ultra vires of the union's charter, and nobody would be compelled by the charter to follow them. An example from the constitutional law of sovereign states would be a provincial parliament in

616-490: A compact between the Federal Republic and the acceding state. It remained unclear whether accession under Article 23 could be achieved by a part of Germany whose government was not recognised de jure by the Federal Republic, and if so how; but in practice this situation did not arise. Article 23, altered after 1990, originally read as follows: Former Article 23 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany For

770-493: A complaint on the procedural grounds of not being judicially heard (for instance, a violation of audi alteram partem ). Therefore, constitutional complaints are in practice mostly directed against judicial acts, not acts of the executive (which can still be contested before the administrative courts ). Secondly, the complainant must have already raised the issue of the violation while in the course of their other remedies and so many complaints are dismissed as inadmissible. Further,

924-485: A conference of their own on Rittersturz ridge near Koblenz . They decided that any of the Frankfurt requirements should only be implemented in a formally provisional way. So the constitutional assembly was to be called Parlamentarischer Rat (lit. parliamentary council) and the constitution given the name of Basic Law instead of calling it a "constitution". By these provisions they made clear, that any West German state

1078-405: A constitution in general terms was "the arrangement of the offices in a state". In his works Constitution of Athens , Politics , and Nicomachean Ethics , he explores different constitutions of his day, including those of Athens, Sparta , and Carthage . He classified both what he regarded as good and what he regarded as bad constitutions, and came to the conclusion that the best constitution

1232-470: A decree issued by the Pope , now referred to as an apostolic constitution . William Blackstone used the term for significant and egregious violations of public trust, of a nature and extent that the transgression would justify a revolutionary response. The term as used by Blackstone was not for a legal text, nor did he intend to include the later American concept of judicial review : "for that were to set

1386-580: A federal disciplinary court. Article 92 establishes that all courts other than the federal courts established under the Basic Law are courts of the Länder . Article 101 bans extraordinary courts , such as the Volksgerichtshof . Article 97 provides for judicial independence . Article 102 abolishes capital punishment . Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute

1540-507: A federal or state law or public ordinance is alleged to be in violation of these fundamental rights, the Basic Law provides the constitutional complaint with an appeal to the Federal Constitutional Court (Article 93 paragraph 1 No. 4a). Article 1 of these fundamental rights, which states that human dignity shall be inviolable and all state authority shall respect and protect it, cannot be changed or removed. The same

1694-594: A further clause 143(3) to entrench in the Basic Law the irreversibility of acts of expropriation undertaken by the Soviet occupying powers between 1945 and 1949. Hence when the GDR's nominal accession to the Federal Republic under Article 23 came into effect on 3 October 1990, Article 23 was no longer in place. Strictly therefore, German reunification was effected by the Unification Treaty between two sovereign states,

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1848-510: A guarantee of inviolable fundamental rights. Initially it was intended to limit these to classic formulations of civil freedoms, as with equality before the law, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of occupation and freedom of religious conscience. In the event particular interests pushed for additional consideration: the Catholic Church (through CDU /CSU representatives) succeeded in inserting protection both for 'Marriage and

2002-442: A judge. The constitutional complaint is open to natural persons and legal persons . However, constitutional rights apply to legal persons only insofar as they can be sensibly applied to them (Art. 19, para. 3, GG). A constitutional complaint is admissible only if complainants, at the time of filing, have the legal standing ( Beschwerdebefugnis ) to do so. They must allege that one of their Basic Rights or equivalent rights (see

2156-553: A period of 20 years would be the optimal time for any constitution to be still in force, since "the earth belongs to the living, and not to the dead". Indeed, according to recent studies, the average life of any new written constitution is around 19 years. However, a great number of constitutions do not last more than 10 years, and around 10% do not last more than one year, as was the case of the French Constitution of 1791 . By contrast, some constitutions, notably that of

2310-603: A period of more than four hundred years, an important aspect of the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire . In China , the Hongwu Emperor created and refined a document he called Ancestral Injunctions (first published in 1375, revised twice more before he died in 1398). These rules served as a constitution for the Ming dynasty for the next 250 years. The oldest written document still governing

2464-482: A provisional West German state , expecting that an eventual reunified Germany would adopt a proper constitution, enacted under the provisions of Article 146 of the Basic Law, which stipulates that such a constitution must be "freely adopted by the German people". Nevertheless, although the amended Basic Law was approved by all four Allied Powers in 1990 (who thereby relinquished their reserved constitutional rights ), it

2618-478: A reborn and unified German state: either under Article 23 whereby 'other parts of Germany' over and above the named States of the Federal Republic ( Bundesländer ) could subsequently declare their accession, or under Article 146 where constituent power ( pouvoir constituant ) could be exercised by elected representatives of the entirety of the German people in creating a new permanent constitution that would replace

2772-863: A single code until the Codex Theodosianus (438 AD); later, in the Eastern Empire, the Codex repetitæ prælectionis (534) was highly influential throughout Europe. This was followed in the east by the Ecloga of Leo III the Isaurian (740) and the Basilica of Basil I (878). The Edicts of Ashoka established constitutional principles for the 3rd century BC Maurya king's rule in India . For constitutional principles almost lost to antiquity, see

2926-455: A sovereign nation today is that of San Marino . The Leges Statutae Republicae Sancti Marini was written in Latin and consists of six books. The first book, with 62 articles, establishes councils, courts, various executive officers, and the powers assigned to them. The remaining books cover criminal and civil law and judicial procedures and remedies. Written in 1600, the document was based upon

3080-538: A state council consisting of 21 members while executive authority was vested in the office of " Lord Protector of the Commonwealth ." This position was designated as a non-hereditary life appointment. The Instrument also required the calling of triennial Parliaments , with each sitting for at least five months. The Instrument of Government was replaced in May 1657 by England's second, and last, codified constitution,

3234-551: A successor in a "constructive vote of no confidence". The guardian of the Basic Law is the German Federal Constitutional Court ( Bundesverfassungsgericht ) which is both an independent constitutional organ and at the same time part of the judiciary in the sectors of constitutional law and public international law. Its judgements have the legal status of ordinary law. It is required by law to declare statutes as null and void if they are in violation of

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3388-569: A whole' in the form of German peoples living outside the territory under the control of the Federal Republic of 1949, with whom the Federal Republic was constitutionally bound to pursue reunification, and in respect of whom mechanisms were provided by which such other parts of Germany might subsequently declare their accession to the Basic Law. Since initially the Basic Law did not apply for all of Germany, its legal provisions were only valid in its field of application ( Geltungsbereich des Grundgesetzes für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland ). This legal term

3542-423: A wider national German nation, and from that date the GDR maintained that from 1949 there had existed two entirely separate sovereign German states. The Federal Republic's Cold-war Allies supported its claims in part, as they acknowledged the Federal Republic as the sole legitimate democratically organised state within former German territory (the GDR being held to be a Soviet puppet state ), but they did not accept

3696-473: Is ab initio , that is, from inception, not from the date of the finding. It was never "law", even though, if it had been a statute or statutory provision, it might have been adopted according to the procedures for adopting legislation. Sometimes the problem is not that a statute is unconstitutional, but that the application of it is, on a particular occasion, and a court may decide that while there are ways it could be applied that are constitutional, that instance

3850-485: Is a court judgment or administrative order against the complainant. Violations of constitutional rights by a law are also actionable, but most laws are not self-executing and therefore fail the immediacy requirement. As an extraordinary remedy the constitutional complaint is subsidiary to regular remedies, especially appeals to higher courts, which means two things. In the first place, the appellants must have exhausted all other possible remedies, including, if appropriate,

4004-422: Is a protection of human dignity ("Menschenwürde") and human rights; they are core values protected by the Basic Law. The principles of democracy , republicanism , social responsibility , federalism and rule of law are key components of the Basic Law (Article 20). Articles 1 and 20 are protected by the so-called eternity clause ("Ewigkeitsklausel") Article 79 (3) that prohibits any sort of change or removal of

4158-487: Is amended, this has to be done explicitly; the concerning article must be cited. Under Weimar the constitution could be amended without notice; any law passed with a two-thirds majority vote was not bound by the constitution. Under the Basic Law the fundamentals of the constitution in Articles 1 and 20, the fundamental rights in Articles 1 to 19, and key elements of the federalist state, cannot be removed. Especially important

4312-489: Is considered foundational to the rule of law . Excavations in modern-day Iraq by Ernest de Sarzec in 1877 found evidence of the earliest known code of justice , issued by the Sumerian king Urukagina of Lagash c.  2300 BC . Perhaps the earliest prototype for a law of government, this document itself has not yet been discovered; however it is known that it allowed some rights to his citizens. For example, it

4466-646: Is considered part of the compilation of Constitutions) until 1716, when Philip V of Spain gave the Nueva Planta decrees , finishing with the historical laws of Catalonia . These Constitutions were usually made formally as a royal initiative, but required for its approval or repeal the favorable vote of the Catalan Courts , the medieval antecedent of the modern Parliaments. These laws, like other modern constitutions, had preeminence over other laws, and they could not be contradicted by mere decrees or edicts of

4620-438: Is constituted. Within states , a constitution defines the principles upon which the state is based, the procedure in which laws are made and by whom. Some constitutions, especially codified constitutions, also act as limiters of state power, by establishing lines which a state's rulers cannot cross, such as fundamental rights . Changes to constitutions frequently require consensus or supermajority . The Constitution of India

4774-691: Is headed by the Federal Constitutional Court , which oversees the constitutionality of laws. In Germany's parliamentary system of government, the Federal Chancellor runs the government and the day-to-day affairs of state. However, the German President's role is more than merely ceremonial. By his or her actions and public appearances, the Federal President represents the state itself, its existence, its legitimacy, and unity. The President's office has an integrative role and

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4928-457: Is known that it relieved tax for widows and orphans, and protected the poor from the usury of the rich. After that, many governments ruled by special codes of written laws. The oldest such document still known to exist seems to be the Code of Ur-Nammu of Ur (c. 2050 BC). Some of the better-known ancient law codes are the code of Lipit-Ishtar of Isin , the code of Hammurabi of Babylonia ,

5082-539: Is the longest written constitution of any country in the world, with 146,385 words in its English-language version, while the Constitution of Monaco is the shortest written constitution with 3,814 words. The Constitution of San Marino might be the world's oldest active written constitution, since some of its core documents have been in operation since 1600, while the Constitution of the United States

5236-496: Is the oldest active codified constitution. The historical life expectancy of a constitution since 1789 is approximately 19 years. The term constitution comes through French from the Latin word constitutio , used for regulations and orders, such as the imperial enactments ( constitutiones principis : edicta, mandata, decreta, rescripta). Later, the term was widely used in canon law for an important determination, especially

5390-575: Is the protection of the division of state powers into the legislative, executive and judicial branches. This is provided by Article 20. A clear separation of powers was considered imperative to prevent measures like an over-reaching Enabling act , as happened in Germany in 1933 . This act had given the government legislative powers which effectively finished the Weimar Republic and led to the dictatorship of Nazi Germany . Article 95 establishes

5544-481: Is true of Article 20, which enshrines fundamental principles of the state—for example, that Germany is a state of law and a democracy. Laws which limit these basic rights are in no case allowed to affect the essence of these rights (Article 19 paragraph 2). Some people think every basic right cannot be changed or removed. However, that is a misconception as other fundamental rights are not protected by Article 79 paragraph 3 ( Eternity Clause ). According to this regulation

5698-458: The Bundeswehr to shoot down civilian aircraft in case of a terrorist attack. It was ruled to be in violation of the guarantee of life and human dignity in the Basic Law. The Federal Constitutional Court decides on the constitutionality of laws and government actions under the following circumstances: The Weimar Constitution did not institute a court with similar powers. When the Basic Law

5852-572: The Byzantine emperors ' Novellae (most were taken from Justinian 's Novellae). The Nomocanon was a completely new compilation of civil and canonical regulations, taken from Byzantine sources but completed and reformed by St. Sava to function properly in Serbia. Besides decrees that organized the life of the church, there are various norms regarding civil life; most of these were taken from Prohiron. Legal transplants of Roman - Byzantine law became

6006-853: The Federal Court of Justice , the Federal Administrative Court , the Federal Finance Court , the Federal Labour Court and the Federal Social Court as supreme courts in their respective areas of jurisdiction. Article 96 authorizes the establishment by federal law of the Federal Patent Court , of federal military criminal courts having jurisdiction only in a state of defense or on soldiers serving abroad, and of

6160-748: The Grandees of the New Model Army had presented the Heads of Proposals as their alternative to the more radical Agreement of the People presented by the Agitators and their civilian supporters at the Putney Debates . The Instrument of Government was adopted by Parliament on 15 December 1653, and Oliver Cromwell was installed as Lord Protector on the following day. The constitution set up

6314-539: The Hittite code , the Assyrian code , and Mosaic law . In 621 BC, a scribe named Draco codified the oral laws of the city-state of Athens ; this code prescribed the death penalty for many offenses (thus creating the modern term "draconian" for very strict rules). In 594 BC, Solon , the ruler of Athens, created the new Solonian Constitution . It eased the burden of the workers, and determined that membership of

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6468-510: The House of Commons . The Nomocanon of Saint Sava ( Serbian : Законоправило/Zakonopravilo ) was the first Serbian constitution from 1219. St. Sava's Nomocanon was the compilation of civil law , based on Roman Law , and canon law , based on Ecumenical Councils . Its basic purpose was to organize the functioning of the young Serbian kingdom and the Serbian church . Saint Sava began

6622-579: The Humble Petition and Advice , proposed by Sir Christopher Packe . The Petition offered hereditary monarchy to Oliver Cromwell , asserted Parliament 's control over issuing new taxation , provided an independent council to advise the king and safeguarded "Triennial" meetings of Parliament. A modified version of the Humble Petition with the clause on kingship removed was ratified on 25 May. This finally met its demise in conjunction with

6776-663: The Instrument of Government included elements incorporated from an earlier document " Heads of Proposals ", which had been agreed to by the Army Council in 1647, as a set of propositions intended to be a basis for a constitutional settlement after King Charles I was defeated in the First English Civil War . Charles had rejected the propositions, but before the start of the Second Civil War,

6930-490: The London Six-Power Conference of the three western occupying powers (US, United Kingdom, France) and the three Western neighbours of Germany (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg) was debating the political future of the three western occupation zones of Germany. The negotiations ended with the conclusion that a democratic and federal West German state was to be established. As an immediate consequence of

7084-725: The Lord High Chancellor of Sweden Axel Oxenstierna after the death of king Gustavus Adolphus . This can be seen as the first written constitution adopted by a modern state. In 1639, the Colony of Connecticut adopted the Fundamental Orders , which was the first North American constitution. It is the basis for every new Connecticut constitution since, and is also the reason for Connecticut 's nickname, "the Constitution State ". On 4 January 1649,

7238-577: The Museum Koenig in Bonn on 8 May 1949—the museum was the only intact building in Bonn large enough to house the assembly—and after being approved by the occupying powers on 12 May 1949, it was ratified by the parliaments of all the Trizonal Länder with the exception of Bavaria . The Landtag of Bavaria rejected the Basic Law mainly because it was seen as not granting sufficient powers to

7392-459: The Myanmar 2008 Constitution was being secretly drafted for more than 17 years, whereas at the other extreme, during the drafting of Japan 's 1946 Constitution, the bureaucrats drafted everything in no more than a week. Japan has the oldest unamended constitution in the world. The record for the shortest overall process of drafting, adoption, and ratification of a national constitution belongs to

7546-461: The Nazi regime was characterised as having been a 'criminal' state, illegal and illegitimate from the outset, while the Weimar Republic was characterised as having been a 'failed' state, whose inherent institutional and constitutional flaws had been exploited by Hitler in his "illegal" seizure of dictatorial powers. Consequently, following the death of Hitler in 1945 and the subsequent capitulation of

7700-569: The Reichstag Fire Decree of 1933 to suspend basic rights and to remove communist members of the Reichstag from power, an important step for Hitler 's Machtergreifung . The suspension of human rights would also be illegal under Articles 20 and 79, as above. The right to resist is permitted against anyone seeking to abolish constitutional order, if other remedies were to fail under Article 20. The constitutional position of

7854-523: The Romania 's 1938 constitution, which installed a royal dictatorship in less than a month. Studies showed that typically extreme cases where the constitution-making process either takes too long or is extremely short were non-democracies. In principle, constitutional rights are not a specific characteristic of democratic countries. Autocratic states have constitutions, such as that of North Korea , which officially grants every citizen, among other things,

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8008-621: The Rump Parliament declared "that the people are, under God, the original of all just power; that the Commons of England, being chosen by and representing the people, have the supreme power in this nation". The English Protectorate set up by Oliver Cromwell after the English Civil War promulgated the first detailed written constitution adopted by a modern state; it was called the Instrument of Government . This formed

8162-1094: The Salic Law of the Franks , all written soon after 500. In 506, the Breviarum or "Lex Romana" of Alaric II , king of the Visigoths, adopted and consolidated the Codex Theodosianus together with assorted earlier Roman laws. Systems that appeared somewhat later include the Edictum Rothari of the Lombards (643), the Lex Visigothorum (654), the Lex Alamannorum (730), and the Lex Frisionum (c. 785). These continental codes were all composed in Latin, while Anglo-Saxon

8316-815: The Statuti Comunali (Town Statute) of 1300, itself influenced by the Codex Justinianus , and it remains in force today. In 1392 the Carta de Logu was legal code of the Giudicato of Arborea promulgated by the giudicessa Eleanor . It was in force in Sardinia until it was superseded by the code of Charles Felix in April 1827. The Carta was a work of great importance in Sardinian history. It

8470-417: The Volkskammer of the GDR did indeed declare its accession to the Federal Republic under Article 23 of the Basic Law, but postdated to come into effect on 3 October 1990, and conditional on fundamental amendments being made to the Basic Law in the interim. These amendments were required to implement the series of constitutional changes to the Basic Law that had been agreed both in the Unification Treaty between

8624-401: The code of Manu . Many of the Germanic peoples that filled the power vacuum left by the Western Roman Empire in the Early Middle Ages codified their laws. One of the first of these Germanic law codes to be written was the Visigothic Code of Euric (471 AD). This was followed by the Lex Burgundionum , applying separate codes for Germans and for Romans; the Pactus Alamannorum ; and

8778-417: The freedom of expression . However, the extent to which governments abide by their own constitutional provisions varies. In North Korea, for example, the Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System are said to have eclipsed the constitution in importance as a frame of government in practice. Developing a legal and political tradition of strict adherence to constitutional provisions

8932-418: The legal basis of a polity , organization or other type of entity , and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these principles are written down into a single document or set of legal documents, those documents may be said to embody a written constitution ; if they are encompassed in a single comprehensive document, it is said to embody a codified constitution . The Constitution of

9086-414: The parliament of the GDR (East Germany) declared the accession of the GDR according to Article 23 to the Federal Republic of Germany to come into effect on 3 October 1990, making unification an act unilaterally initiated by the last East German parliament . East Germany's "declaration of accession" ( Beitrittserklärung ) envisaged states within East Germany being included into the field of application of

9240-409: The 'overall' Reich was currently not capable of action. According to the 1973 decision of the Federal Constitutional Court, Article 23 of the Basic Law required the Federal Republic to be "legally open" to the accession of those former parts of Germany who were then organised into the German Democratic Republic, and they noted that this implied that the Federal Republic could recognise the capability of

9394-473: The Basic Law a strong instrument for guardianship of the " free democratic basic order " of the Federal Republic, in the form of the Federal Constitutional Court, representing a 'staggering conferral of judicial authority'. Unlike the United States Supreme Court the Federal Constitutional Court not only has jurisdiction in constitutional matters, but also exclusive jurisdiction in such matters; all other courts must refer constitutional cases to it. The intention of

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9548-466: The Basic Law, but subject to the Basic Law first being amended in accordance with both the previously negotiated Unification Treaty between East and West Germany, and also the Two-Plus-Four Treaty , under which the Allied Powers had relinquished their residual German sovereignty. So, on the date of accession of East Germany to the Federal Republic of Germany Article 23 was repealed, representing an explicit commitment under Two-Plus-Four Treaty that, following

9702-407: The Basic Law, in contrast to the Weimar Constitution , which listed them merely as "state objectives". Pursuant to the mandate to respect human dignity , all state power is directly bound to guarantee these basic rights. Article 1 of the Basic Law, which establishes this principle that "human dignity is inviolable" and that human rights are directly applicable law, as well as the general principles of

9856-456: The Basic Law. Adoption of a constitution under Article 146 would have implied that the legal validity of a unified German State would rest on "a free decision by the German people" as a whole. Following the surrender of the German High Command and the dissolution of the Flensburg Government in May 1945, no effective national government of any sort existed in Germany and all national military and civil authority and powers were thereon exercised by

10010-447: The Basic Law. Although judgements of the Federal Constitutional Court are supreme over all other counts, it is not a court of appeal; the FCC only hears constitutional cases, and maintains sole jurisdiction in all such cases, to the exclusion of all other courts. The court is famous for nullifying several high-profile laws, passed by large majorities in the parliament. An example is the Luftsicherheitsgesetz , which would have allowed

10164-436: The Court then explicitly acknowledged that this limited de jure recognition of the GDR also implied acceptance of the constitutional power of the GDR in the interim to enter into international treaties on its own account, naming specifically the treaty with Poland which confirmed the transfer of the " Eastern Territories " to Polish sovereignty. The Communist regime in East Germany fell in 1990. Following free elections

10318-419: The Family" and for parental responsibility for children's education, SPD representatives then amended this to protect additionally the rights of children born outside marriage, and Elisabeth Selbert (one of only four women on the 70-strong panel) was eventually successful in a largely lone campaign to gain constitutional protection for sex equality. Notwithstanding this, there was a striking disjunction between

10472-401: The Federal Constitutional Court can be called not only because of a violation of fundamental rights, but also by violation "of the rights set out in Article 20 paragraph 4 and Articles 33, 38, 101, 103 and 104". Hence, these rights are called the rights identical to fundamental rights. The 1949 Basic Law was explicitly irredentist , maintaining that there remained separated parts of 'Germany as

10626-552: The Federal Government. Article 24 states that the Federal Government may "transfer sovereign powers to international institutions" and Article 25 states that "general rules of international law shall be an integral part of federal law". The latter article was included in deference to the post-war actions of the occupying Western powers; but had the unintended consequence that the Federal Constitutional Court tended to define "rules of international law" as applicable to German federal law within Germany, that were nevertheless different from

10780-402: The Federal President represents the Federal Republic of Germany in matters of international law, concludes treaties with foreign states on its behalf and accredits diplomats. Furthermore, all federal laws must be signed by the President before they can come into effect; however, he/she can only veto a law that he believes to violate the constitution. The Chancellor is the head of government and

10934-434: The Federal Republic alone could represent that Reich, was adopted both by the Federal Government itself and by the Federal Constitutional Court . Initially, the 1949 constitution of the German Democratic Republic adopted a mirror image version of this claim, being framed in anticipation of a future all-German constitution on its own political terms, but it was replaced with a new constitution in 1968 that made no references to

11088-429: The Federal Republic in 1963 by means of an international treaty without invoking Article 23. The Basic Law, in its original form, maintained the continuing existence of a larger Germany and German people, only parts of whom were currently organised within the Federal Republic. Nevertheless, the full extent of the implied wider German nation is nowhere defined in the Basic Law, although it was always clearly understood that

11242-491: The Federal Republic of Germany—composed as it was in 1949—no right to negotiate, reject or deny another German state's declaration of its accession to the FRG, subject to the FRG's recognising that state de jure and being satisfied that the declaration of accession resulted from the free self-determination of its people; while on the other side an acceding state would have to accept the Basic Law and all laws so far legislated under

11396-536: The Federal Republic regarded itself as including almost all of Western Germany such that the only "other parts of Germany" to which Article 23 might be extended were now to the east, hence relinquishing all claims to those western parts of the former German Reich that had been surrendered to France and Denmark. (cf. Little Reunification with the Saar ). The towns of Elten, Selfkant, and Suderwick, which had been occupied and annexed by Netherlands in 1949 , were reunited with

11550-497: The Federal Republic. The government now depends only on the parliament; while the military, by contrast with their status in the Weimar Republic, are entirely under parliamentary authority. To remove the chancellor, the parliament has to engage in a Constructive vote of no confidence ( Konstruktives Misstrauensvotum ), i.e. the election of a new chancellor. The new procedure was intended to provide more stability than under

11704-613: The GDR and the Federal Republic, and in the 'Two Plus Four Treaty' ( Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany ), and had the general effect of removing or rewording all the clauses (including Article 23) on which the Federal Constitutional Court had relied in support of its claim to the continued legal identity of the German Reich as an 'overall state'. Specifically too, the Basic Law

11858-507: The GDR and the Federal Republic, and not by the GDR's prior declaration of accession under Article 23, although the former Article 23 was agreed by both parties to the Treaty as setting the constitutional model by which unification would be achieved. As part of the process, East Germany, which had been a unitary state since 1952, was re-divided into its initial five partially self-governing states ( Bundesländer ), being granted equal status as

12012-564: The GDR state, as then constituted, of so declaring its accession. In this sense, the Basic Treaty's recognition of the GDR as a de jure German State and as a valid state in international relations (albeit without then according it within West Germany with the status of a separate sovereign state) could be interpreted as furthering the long-term objective of eventual German unification, rather than as contradicting it. On 23 August 1990

12166-483: The German Armed Forces, the national institutions and constitutional instruments of both Nazi Germany and the Weimar Republic were understood as entirely defunct, such that the Basic Law could be established in a condition of constitutional nullity. Nevertheless, although the Weimar Republic was now wholly irretrievable, avoiding its perceived constitutional weaknesses represented the predominant concern for

12320-577: The German people in respect to their government. With the specific request of a federal structure of a future German state the Western Powers followed German constitutional tradition since the foundation of the Reich in 1871. The Ministerpräsidenten were reluctant to fulfill what was expected from them, as they anticipated that the formal foundation of a West German state would mean a permanent disruption of German unity. A few days later they convened

12474-796: The London Six-Power Conference, the representatives of the three western occupation powers on 1 July 1948, convoked the Ministerpräsidenten ( minister-presidents ) of the West German Länder in Frankfurt am Main and committed to them the so-called Frankfurt Documents ( Frankfurter Dokumente ). The handover took place in the I.G. Farben building on the Campus Westend of today's Goethe University . These papers—amongst other points—summoned

12628-531: The Ministerpräsidenten to arrange a constitutional assembly, that should work out a democratic and federal constitution for a West German state. According to Frankfurt Document No 1, the constitution should specify a central power of German government, but nevertheless respect the administration of the Länder and it should contain provisions and guarantees of individual freedom and individual rights of

12782-667: The Saarlanders rejected in a referendum (1955) the transformation of their protectorate into an independent state within the emerging European Economic Community . The Saar Treaty then opened the way for the government of the Saar Protectorate to declare its accession to the West German state under Article 23, including the new Saarland into the field of application of the Basic Law. The Saar held no separate referendum on its accession. With effect from 1 January 1957

12936-502: The United Kingdom is a notable example of an uncodified constitution ; it is instead written in numerous fundamental acts of a legislature, court cases, and treaties. Constitutions concern different levels of organizations, from sovereign countries to companies and unincorporated associations . A treaty that establishes an international organization is also its constitution, in that it would define how that organization

13090-456: The United States, have remained in force for several centuries, often without major revision for long periods of time. The most common reasons for these frequent changes are the political desire for an immediate outcome and the short time devoted to the constitutional drafting process. A study in 2009 showed that the average time taken to draft a constitution is around 16 months, however there were also some extreme cases registered. For example,

13244-549: The Weimar Constitution, when extremists on the left and right would vote to remove a chancellor, without agreeing on a new one, creating a leadership vacuum. In addition it was possible for the parliament to remove individual ministers by a vote of distrust, while it now has to vote against the cabinet as a whole. Article 32 of the Basic Law allows the states to conduct foreign affairs with states with regards to matters falling within their purview, under supervision of

13398-639: The Wise the Grand Prince of Kiev , was granted to Great Novgorod around 1017, and in 1054 was incorporated into the Russkaya Pravda ; it became the law for all of Kievan Rus' . It survived only in later editions of the 15th century. In England, Henry I's proclamation of the Charter of Liberties in 1100 bound the king for the first time in his treatment of the clergy and the nobility. This idea

13552-439: The already existing Länder , with East and West Berlin reuniting into a new city-state (like Bremen and Hamburg ). After the changes of the Basic Law, mostly pertaining to the accession in 1990, additional major modifications were made in 1994 ( Verfassungsreform ), 2002 and 2006 ( Föderalismusreform ). We must be sure that what we construct will some day be a good house for all Germans. Between February and June 1948,

13706-645: The associated arguments for the Reich's continuing 'metaphysical' existence de jure within the organs of the Federal Republic alone. Subsequently, under the Ostpolitik , the Federal Republic in the early 1970s sought to end hostile relations with the countries of the Eastern Bloc , in the course of which it negotiated in 1972 a Basic Treaty with the GDR, recognising it as one of two German states within one German nation, and relinquishing any claim to de jure sovereign jurisdiction over East Germany. The Treaty

13860-477: The basis of government for the short-lived republic from 1653 to 1657 by providing a legal rationale for the increasing power of Cromwell after Parliament consistently failed to govern effectively. Most of the concepts and ideas embedded into modern constitutional theory, especially bicameralism , separation of powers , the written constitution, and judicial review , can be traced back to the experiments of that period. Drafted by Major-General John Lambert in 1653,

14014-645: The basis of the Serbian medieval law. The essence of Zakonopravilo was based on Corpus Iuris Civilis . Stefan Dušan , emperor of Serbs and Greeks, enacted Dušan's Code ( Serbian : Душанов Законик/Dušanov Zakonik ) in Serbia , in two state congresses: in 1349 in Skopje and in 1354 in Serres . It regulated all social spheres, so it was the second Serbian constitution, after St. Sava's Nomocanon (Zakonopravilo). The Code

14168-475: The basis of universal consensus of all chiefs following discussions that were initiated by a single nation. The position of Sachem descends through families and are allocated by the senior female clan heads, though, prior to the filling of the position, candidacy is ultimately democratically decided by the community itself. In 1634 the Kingdom of Sweden adopted the 1634 Instrument of Government , drawn up under

14322-596: The business year 2018, the Court recorded 5678 constitutional complaints filed, of which only 92 were granted relief, in total. Such relief may even extend, however, to voiding the statute found unconstitutional. The constitutional complaint is set out in the Bundesverfassungsgerichtsgesetz (abbreviated BVerfGG), which is the law establishing the Federal Constitutional Court itself, pursuant to GG art. 93, para. 2. The constitutional complaint

14476-531: The complaint must be submitted in written form, and the case must be argued, with appropriate evidence attached. The action or omission by which the complainant alleges their rights have been violated must be specified, as well as the specific right that is alleged to have been violated. Complaints against a law must be lodged within one year after it comes into force. and those against other acts must be filed within one month after service or notification. The Verfassungsbeschwerde resembles, in certain respects,

14630-441: The consciousness of rationality so far as that consciousness is developed in a particular nation." Since 1789, along with the Constitution of the United States of America (U.S. Constitution), which is the oldest and shortest written constitution still in force, close to 800 constitutions have been adopted and subsequently amended around the world by independent states. In the late 18th century, Thomas Jefferson predicted that

14784-593: The constitution to prevent its abolition by a simple repeal of the BVerfGG. Art. 93, para. 1, no. 4a of the Basic Law enumerates the rights that may be the subject of a constitutional complaint. These are the Basic Rights ( Grundrechte ) found in GG articles 1-19, as well as rights considered equivalent (Art. 33, 38, 101, 103 or 104, GG; also, Art. 20, para. 4, GG), like the right to stand for election or to be heard by

14938-403: The controlling function of upholding the law and the constitution. It has also a "political reserve function" for times of crisis in the parliamentary system of government. The Federal President gives direction to general political and societal debates and has some important " reserve powers " in case of political instability (such as those provided for by Article 81). Under Article 59 paragraph 1,

15092-646: The convention were appointed by the leaders of the newly formed (or newly reconstituted) Länder (states). On 1 September 1948 the Parlamentarischer Rat assembled and began working on the exact wording of the Basic Law. The 65 members of the Parlamentarischer Rat were elected by the parliaments of the German Länder with one deputy representing about 750,000 people. After being passed by the Parliamentary Council assembled at

15246-634: The course of Germany's Sonderweg—to reclaim the German State from its special historical path, and to realise in postwar West Germany the Liberal Democratic Republic that had proved unachievable for the Frankfurt patriots of 1848 or the Weimar revolutionaries of 1919." In interpreting it, the Federal Constitutional Court seemed to "have its eye on a Germany that might have been". In the dominant post-war narrative of West Germany ,

15400-712: The death of Cromwell and the Restoration of the monarchy. All of the British colonies in North America that were to become the 13 original United States, adopted their own constitutions in 1776 and 1777, during the American Revolution (and before the later Articles of Confederation and United States Constitution ), with the exceptions of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts adopted its Constitution in 1780,

15554-553: The document focuses more on social morality than on institutions of government, and remains a notable early attempt at a government constitution. The Constitution of Medina ( Arabic : صحیفة المدینه , Ṣaḥīfat al-Madīna), also known as the Charter of Medina, was drafted by the Islamic prophet Muhammad after his flight ( hijra ) to Yathrib where he became political leader. It constituted a formal agreement between Muhammad and all of

15708-425: The enumeration above) has been violated by an action or omission of German state power. That includes acts carried out by any level of government (not those, however, directly carried out by European Union agencies, which are not part of the German state), and any function of government ( executive , judicial , legislative ). In particular, the act or omission must Standing is virtually always given when there

15862-601: The federal government was strengthened, as the Bundespräsident has only a small fraction of the former power of the Reichspräsident , and in particular, is no longer in Supreme Command of the armed forces. Indeed, the original text of the Basic Law of 1949 made no provision for federal armed forces; only in 1955 was the Basic Law amended with Article 87a to allow the creation of a German military for

16016-834: The fold of one community – the Ummah . The precise dating of the Constitution of Medina remains debated, but generally, scholars agree it was written shortly after the Hijra (622). In Wales , the Cyfraith Hywel (Law of Hywel) was codified by Hywel Dda c. 942–950. It served as the main law code in Wales until it was superseded by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 . The Pravda Yaroslava , originally combined by Yaroslav

16170-484: The former German state had been rendered powerless to act, and that consequently, once a freely constituted German government had come into being in the form of the Federal Republic, it could resume the identity and legal status of the former German Reich without reference to the Allied Powers. From the 1950s, the claim that there was a single continuing German Reich, and that in some sense the Federal Republic and

16324-714: The four Allies . The Allies maintained in fact that sovereign authorities wielding state powers no longer existed in the former German Reich; so, as the 'highest authority' for Germany, they were entitled to assume all sovereign powers without limitation of duration or scope, and could legitimately impose whatever measures on the German people within German national territory as any government could legally do on its own people—including validly ceding parts of that territory and people to another country. They argued furthermore that international conventions constraining occupying powers in wartime from enforcing fundamental changes of governmental system, economic system or social institutions within

16478-410: The framers of the Basic Law was that this court would range widely against any tendency to slip back toward non-democratic ways: "a strict but benevolent guardian of an immature democracy that cannot quite trust itself". As such the Federal Constitutional Court had the power to ban political parties whose objectives or actions threatened the 'free democratic basic order". The Basic Law places at its head

16632-531: The framers of the Basic Law. The experience of the Weimar Republic had resulted in a widespread public perception that the principles of representative democracy and of the rule of law ( Rechtsstaat ) were inherently in conflict with one another, and the Parliamentary Council drafting the Basic Law were well aware that their militantly pro-democratic ideals were far from generally shared in the bleak context of Germany in 1949. Hence they built into

16786-510: The generality of rules and principles of international law as they might operate between Germany and other nations. Hence, the Federal Constitutional Court could recognise East Germany as a sovereign state in international law in the second sense, while still asserting that it was not a "sovereign state in international law" within Germany itself. In seeking to come to terms with Germany's catastrophic recent history, much discussion has focused on

16940-576: The individual Länder , but at the same time decided that it would still come into force in Bavaria if two-thirds of the other Länder ratified it. On 23 May 1949, in a solemn session of the Parliamentary Council, the German Basic Law was signed and promulgated. The time of legal nonentity ended, as the new West German state, the Federal Republic of Germany, came into being, although still under Western occupation. Basic rights are fundamental to

17094-635: The insistence of the Western Allies, formally excluded West Berlin . In 1990, the Two Plus Four Agreement between the two parts of Germany and all four Allies stipulated the implementation of a number of amendments. The German word Grundgesetz may be translated as either Basic Law or Fundamental Law . The term "constitution" (Verfassung) was avoided as the drafters regarded the Grundgesetz as an interim arrangement for

17248-436: The institutions of the FRG as they were. As the Federal Republic could not itself declare the accession of another part of Germany under Article 23, this provision could not be applied as an instrument of annexation , nor could accession under Article 23 be achieved by international treaty with third party states, although the Federal Constitutional Court recognised that a future declared accession could be framed de facto as

17402-456: The judicial power above that of the legislature, which would be subversive of all government". Generally, every modern written constitution confers specific powers on an organization or institutional entity, established upon the primary condition that it abides by the constitution's limitations. According to Scott Gordon, a political organization is constitutional to the extent that it "contain[s] institutionalized mechanisms of power control for

17556-411: The jurisdiction of this German state, it refers to it as the 'federal territory', so avoiding any inference of there being a constitutionally defined 'German national territory'. The authors of the Basic Law sought to ensure that a potential dictator would never again be able to come to power in the country. Although some of the Basic Law is based on the Weimar Republic's constitution , the first article

17710-433: The key theory of a German Sonderweg (special way): the proposition that Germany had followed a path to modernity radically different from that of its European neighbours, that had rendered it particularly susceptible to militaristic, anti-humanitarian, totalitarian and genocidal impulses. The theory is much contested, but formed the major context for the original formulation of the Basic Law. The Basic Law sought "to correct

17864-589: The king. The Kouroukan Founga was a 13th-century charter of the Mali Empire in West Africa , reconstructed from oral tradition in 1988 by Siriman Kouyaté . It included the "right to life and to the preservation of physical integrity" and significant protections for women. The Golden Bull of 1356 was a decree issued by a Reichstag in Nuremberg headed by Emperor Charles IV that fixed, for

18018-640: The largely ceremonial Federal President as head of state and the Federal Chancellor , the head of government, normally (but not necessarily) the leader of the largest grouping in the Bundestag. The legislative branch is represented by the Bundestag , elected directly through a mixed-member proportional representation , with the German Länder participating in legislation through the Bundesrat , reflecting Germany's federal structure. The judicial branch

18172-402: The legal judgement of his peers, or by the law of the land. This provision became the cornerstone of English liberty after that point. The social contract in the original case was between the king and the nobility but was gradually extended to all of the people. It led to the system of Constitutional Monarchy , with further reforms shifting the balance of power from the monarchy and nobility to

18326-731: The legislative, executive, and judiciary branches, well before the publication of Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws . This Constitution also limited the executive authority of the hetman , and established a democratically elected Cossack parliament called the General Council. However, Orlyk's project for an independent Ukrainian State never materialized, and his constitution, written in exile, never went into effect. Corsican Constitutions of 1755 and 1794 were inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau . The latter introduced universal suffrage for property owners. Constitutional complaint In

18480-553: The most influential figure in German day-to-day politics, as well as the head of the Federal Government , consisting of ministers appointed by the Federal President on the Chancellor's suggestion. While every minister governs his or her department autonomously, the Chancellor may issue overriding policy guidelines. The Chancellor is elected for a full term of the Bundestag and can only be dismissed by parliament electing

18634-604: The oldest still-functioning constitution of any U.S. state; while Connecticut and Rhode Island officially continued to operate under their old colonial charters, until they adopted their first state constitutions in 1818 and 1843, respectively. What is sometimes called the "enlightened constitution" model was developed by philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment such as Thomas Hobbes , Jean-Jacques Rousseau , and John Locke . The model proposed that constitutional governments should be stable, adaptable, accountable, open and should represent

18788-550: The people (i.e., support democracy ). Agreements and Constitutions of Laws and Freedoms of the Zaporizian Host was written in 1710 by Pylyp Orlyk , hetman of the Zaporozhian Host . It was written to establish a free Zaporozhian-Ukrainian Republic , with the support of Charles XII of Sweden . It is notable in that it established a democratic standard for the separation of powers in government between

18942-466: The peoples of both East Germany and Berlin would be included. In its judgement of 1973, confirming the constitutional validity of the Basic Treaty between East Germany and West Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court justified the recognition of East Germany as a valid German state, on the basis that this would enable the GDR in the future to declare accession to the Basic Law under Article 23. But

19096-417: The preamble to the Basic Law, its adoption was declared as an action of the "German people", and Article 20 states "All state authority is derived from the people". These statements embody the constitutional principles that 'Germany' is identical with the German people, and that the German people act constitutionally as the primary institution of the German state. Where the Basic Law refers to the territory under

19250-494: The principles laid down in Articles 1 and 20. Fundamental rights ( Grundrechte ) are guaranteed in Germany by the Federal Constitution and in some state constitutions. In the Basic Law, most fundamental rights are guaranteed in the first section of the same name (Articles 1 to 19). They are subjective public rights with the constitutional rank which bind all institutions and functions of the state. In cases where

19404-403: The protection of the interests and liberties of the citizenry , including those that may be in the minority ". Activities of officials within an organization or polity that fall within the constitutional or statutory authority of those officials are termed "within power" (or, in Latin, intra vires ); if they do not, they are termed "beyond power" (or, in Latin, ultra vires ). For example,

19558-644: The reign of Zara Yaqob . Even so, its first recorded use in the function of a constitution (supreme law of the land) is with Sarsa Dengel beginning in 1563. The Fetha Negest remained the supreme law in Ethiopia until 1931, when a modern-style Constitution was first granted by Emperor Haile Selassie I. In the Principality of Catalonia , the Catalan constitutions were promulgated by the Court from 1283 (or even two centuries before, if Usatges of Barcelona

19712-546: The ruling class was to be based on wealth ( plutocracy ), rather than on birth ( aristocracy ). Cleisthenes again reformed the Athenian constitution and set it on a democratic footing in 508 BC. Aristotle (c. 350 BC) was the first to make a formal distinction between ordinary law and constitutional law, establishing ideas of constitution and constitutionalism , and attempting to classify different forms of constitutional government. The most basic definition he used to describe

19866-400: The same meaning; as do "beyond power", ultra vires , "not authorized" and "invalid". In most but not all modern states the constitution has supremacy over ordinary statutory law (see Uncodified constitution below); in such states when an official act is unconstitutional, i.e. it is not a power granted to the government by the constitution, that act is null and void , and the nullification

20020-591: The significant tribes and families of Yathrib (later known as Medina ), including Muslims , Jews , and pagans . The document was drawn up with the explicit concern of bringing to an end the bitter intertribal fighting between the clans of the Aws ( Aus ) and Khazraj within Medina. To this effect it instituted a number of rights and responsibilities for the Muslim, Jewish, and pagan communities of Medina bringing them within

20174-426: The social context of two-parent, family households assumed in the Basic Law, and the everyday reality of German society in 1949, where over half of adult women were unmarried, separated or widowed, where the effective working population was overwhelmingly female, and where millions of expellees, refugees and displaced families were still without permanent accommodation. It was not until 1994 that constitutional protection

20328-528: The state in Article 20, which guarantees democracy, republicanism , social responsibility and federalism , remain under the guarantee of perpetuity stated in Article 79 paragraph 3, i.e., the principles underlying these clauses cannot be removed even if the normal amendment process is followed. There were, in the original version, no emergency powers such as those used by the Reichspräsident in

20482-619: The supreme law used in parts of Germany as late as 1900. Around 1240, the Coptic Egyptian Christian writer, 'Abul Fada'il Ibn al-'Assal , wrote the Fetha Negest in Arabic . 'Ibn al-Assal took his laws partly from apostolic writings and Mosaic law and partly from the former Byzantine codes. There are a few historical records claiming that this law code was translated into Ge'ez and entered Ethiopia around 1450 in

20636-670: The territory under their control—the Hague Regulations of Land Warfare and the Geneva Conventions —did not apply, and could not apply, as the termination of Nazi Germany and the total Denazification of German institutions and legal structures had been agreed by the Allies as absolute moral imperatives. Consequently, the Potsdam Agreement envisaged that an eventual self-governing state would emerge from

20790-426: The time being, this Basic Law shall apply in the territory of the Länder of Baden , Bavaria, Bremen , Greater Berlin, Hamburg , Hesse, Lower Saxony , North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate , Schleswig-Holstein, Württemberg-Baden , and Württemberg-Hohenzollern . In other parts of Germany it shall be put into force on their accession. Whereas the West German state had gained restricted sovereignty in May 1955,

20944-423: The unification of East Germany, West Germany and Berlin, no "other parts of Germany" remained in east or west to which the Berlin Republic might validly be extended. Rather than adopting a new constitution under Article 146 of the Basic Law, the Bundestag (Parliament of Germany) amended Article 146 and the Preamble of the Basic Law to state that German unification had now been fully achieved, while also adding

21098-403: The unity and freedom of Germany." This was understood as embedding in the Basic Law both the proposition that Germany in 1949 was neither unified nor free, and also as binding the new Federal Republic to a duty to pursue the creation of such a free and unified Germany "on behalf of those Germans to whom participation was denied". The Basic Law potentially provided two routes for the establishment of

21252-409: The work on the Serbian Nomocanon in 1208 while he was at Mount Athos , using The Nomocanon in Fourteen Titles , Synopsis of Stefan the Efesian , Nomocanon of John Scholasticus , and Ecumenical Council documents, which he modified with the canonical commentaries of Aristinos and Joannes Zonaras , local church meetings, rules of the Holy Fathers , the law of Moses , the translation of Prohiron, and

21406-424: The wreckage of WWII covering 'Germany as a whole', but that this new state would have no claim to sovereignty other than as derived from the sovereignty then being assumed by the Allies, and its constitution would also require the approval of all the Allies. From the 1950s onwards, however, a school of German legal scholars developed the alternative view that the Allies had only taken custody of German sovereignty while

21560-407: Was a mixed system including monarchic, aristocratic, and democratic elements. He also distinguished between citizens, who had the right to participate in the state, and non-citizens and slaves, who did not. The Romans initially codified their constitution in 450 BC as the Twelve Tables . They operated under a series of laws that were added from time to time, but Roman law was not reorganized into

21714-416: Was a provisional piece of legislation pending the reunification of Germany . However, when reunification took place in 1990, the Basic Law was retained as the definitive constitution of reunified Germany. Its original field of application ( Geltungsbereich )—that is, the states that were initially included in the Federal Republic of Germany —consisted of the three Western Allies' zones of occupation, but at

21868-414: Was an organic, coherent, and systematic work of legislation encompassing the civil and penal law . The Gayanashagowa , the oral constitution of the Haudenosaunee nation also known as the Great Law of Peace, established a system of governance as far back as 1190 AD (though perhaps more recently at 1451) in which the Sachems , or tribal chiefs, of the Iroquois League's member nations made decisions on

22022-420: Was based on Roman - Byzantine law . The legal transplanting within articles 171 and 172 of Dušan's Code, which regulated juridical independence, is notable. They were taken from the Byzantine code Basilika (book VII, 1, 16–17). In 1222, Hungarian King Andrew II issued the Golden Bull of 1222 . Between 1220 and 1230, a Saxon administrator, Eike von Repgow , composed the Sachsenspiegel , which became

22176-492: Was challenged in the Federal Constitutional court, as apparently contradicting the overriding aspirations of the Basic Law for a unified German state; but the Treaty's legality was upheld by the Court, heavily qualified by a reassertion of the claim that the German Reich continued to exist as an 'overall state' such that the duty to strive for future German unity could not be abandoned while East and West Germany remained disunited, albeit that without any institutional organs of itself

22330-408: Was extended against discrimination on grounds of disability, while discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation is still not disallowed within the Basic Law. As adopted by West Germany in 1949 as an interim constitution, the preamble of the Basic Law looked forward explicitly to a future free and united German state: "The entire German people is called upon to accomplish, by free self-determination,

22484-562: Was extended and refined by the English barony when they forced King John to sign Magna Carta in 1215. The most important single article of Magna Carta, related to " habeas corpus ", provided that the king was not permitted to imprison, outlaw, exile or kill anyone at a whim – there must be due process of law first. This article, Article 39, of Magna Carta read: No free man shall be arrested, or imprisoned, or deprived of his property, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor shall we go against him or send against him, unless by

22638-513: Was frequently used in West German legislation when West German laws did not apply to the entirety of German territory, as was usually the case. Article 23 of the Basic Law provided other de jure German states, initially not included in the field of application of the Basic Law, with the right to declare their accession ( Beitritt ) at a later date. Therefore, although the Basic Law was considered provisional, it allowed more parts of Germany to join its field of application. On one side, it gave

22792-403: Was never submitted to a popular vote, neither in 1949 nor in 1990. However, the Basic Law as passed in 1949 also contained Article 23 which provided for "other parts of Germany" to "join the area of applicability of the Basic Law" which was the provision that was used for German reunification from the constitutional standpoint. As the overwhelming consensus thereafter was that the German question

22946-443: Was not a definite state for the German people, and that future German self-determination and the reunification of Germany was still on their agenda. The Ministerpräsidenten prevailed and the Western Powers gave in concerning this highly symbolic question. The draft was prepared at the preliminary Herrenchiemsee convention (10–23 August 1948) on the Herreninsel in the Chiemsee , a lake in southeastern Bavaria . The delegates at

23100-404: Was not allowed or legitimate. In such a case, only that application may be ruled unconstitutional. Historically, the remedies for such violations have been petitions for common law writs , such as quo warranto . Scholars debate whether a constitution must necessarily be autochthonous , resulting from the nations "spirit". Hegel said "A constitution...is the work of centuries; it is the idea,

23254-453: Was originally codified in federal law (BVerfGG §§ 90 et seq.) and was not initially guaranteed by the constitution itself. It was incorporated into the constitution in 1969 as a political bargain. The constitution was then controversially amended to allow the declaration of a state of exception ( Notstandsverfassung ), allowing temporary restrictions on Basic Rights . It was felt that the constitutional complaint remedy had to be enshrined in

23408-419: Was settled, and to reaffirm the renunciation of any residual German claim to land east of Oder and Neiße , Article 23 was repealed the same day as reunification came into force. An unrelated article on the relationship between Germany and the European Union was instead inserted in its place two years later. As a heritage of the Lesser German solution , neither was unification with Austria aspired for. In

23562-464: Was then amended such that the constitutional duty of the German people to strive for unity and freedom was stated as now fully realised, and consequently that the expanded ' Berlin Republic ' could no longer be "legally open" to further accessions of former German territories. The Basic Law established Germany as a parliamentary democracy with separation of powers into executive , legislative , and judicial branches. The executive branch consists of

23716-461: Was used for those of England, beginning with the Code of Æthelberht of Kent (602). Around 893, Alfred the Great combined this and two other earlier Saxon codes, with various Mosaic and Christian precepts, to produce the Doom book code of laws for England. Japan 's Seventeen-article constitution written in 604, reportedly by Prince Shōtoku , is an early example of a constitution in Asian political history. Influenced by Buddhist teachings,

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