Abstract
The framers of the 1949 West German Constitution, or Basic Law (Grundgesetz) (GG), sought above all to prevent the re-emergence of tyranny. They expected to preserve a liberal regime by correcting the faults that led to the collapse of the Weimar Republic. The constitution thus has four primary goals: to give effect to majority rule, to protect individual liberty, to guarantee equality of means as well as of opportunity, and to maintain federalism. Awaiting the reunification of Germany, a nation divided into two states after the Second World War, the founders of the Federal Republic ‘desir[ed] to give a new order to political life for a transitional period’ (Preamble, Grundgesetz) and thus eschewed the term ‘constitution’ in favour of ‘basic law’.
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Notes
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© 1988 Jerold L. Waltman and Kenneth M. Holland
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Holland, K.M. (1988). The Courts in the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Waltman, J.L., Holland, K.M. (eds) The Political Role of Law Courts in Modern Democracies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19081-2_5
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