The Unification of Germany: What Would Jhering Say?

Two of Jhering\u27s ideas are crucial to understanding the problems besetting the merger of East and West Germany. They are (a) the centrality of the notion of private property as the foundation, not only of property rights, but of personal rights as well; and (b) his notion of rechtsgefühl, translated clumsily as a feeling of legal right, but implying the pain and irritation a person feels when he has been put upon. [FN8] It is my thesis that a fundamental difference between the way these two concepts are viewed in the former East and West Germanies is a sword in the bed, presenting a fierce obstacle to the union that both desire

The Unification of Germany: What Would Jhering Say?

Two of Jhering\u27s ideas are crucial to understanding the problems besetting the merger of East and West Germany. They are (a) the centrality of the notion of private property as the foundation, not only of property rights, but of personal rights as well; and (b) his notion of rechtsgefühl, translated clumsily as a feeling of legal right, but implying the pain and irritation a person feels when he has been put upon. [FN8] It is my thesis that a fundamental difference between the way these two concepts are viewed in the former East and West Germanies is a sword in the bed, presenting a fierce obstacle to the union that both desire

The burden of an ageing society as a public debt

Demographic change in industrialized nations has been a matter of common interest for some time. The financial implications of an ageing society are also increasingly discussed, particularly with regard to pension systems. The impact of this development on public finances is, however, only gradually being realized and the constitutional framework of public finances in Germany and the European Union just falls short of ignoring it entirely. This paper is a preliminary assessment of the burden of an ageing society under the fiscal law, specifically in respect of prospective entitlements to the public pension system. The first part analyses the provisions of the German constitution on finances (Finanzverfassungsrecht) to identify what rules, if any, exist addressing such (potential) expenditures, which lie in the immediate or very distant future. The second part of the paper analyses the fiscal requirements under European Union law. In the third and final part a few comments on the proposed national pact on stability and the recent moves to amend the German Federal Constitution are presented

German constitution, a proposal to reform

Vorschlag von Änderungen für das Grundgesetz Deutschlands.Proposals of reforms for the German constitution

"Reconsidering Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany: The Integration of the 21st-century Gastarbeiter"

In the generous welfare states of Europe, one of the most obvious benefits of citizenship is participation in national health insurance plans. With academics and politicians discussing the possibility of a “European welfare state,” it has become crucial to examine the types of definitions the Union might use to create this supranational institution. Rogers Brubaker has opposed the French and German conceptions of citizenship, with German citizenship being transmitted almost exclusively by blood relation (jus sanguinis) and French citizenship being extended to those having proven residence in France (jus solis). Although the immigration reforms of 2003 have permitted second-generation Turkish immigrants in Germany to more easily achieve citizenship status, it remains that many German Turks are excluded from many of the benefits of citizenship. By contrast, France strives to remain the model of jus solis par excellence. Recently, these two countries have progressively begun to extend welfare state benefits to immigrants; movements on behalf of this type of measure have increased in prominence in France since the riots of 2005. This paper develops a mechanism to explain how national models of citizenship have recently granted or limited access to the welfare state; and, conversely, how access to the welfare state can serve to define the citizen. Using the data of the major public opinion surveys and interviews with immigrant communities as well as French and German nationals, it will attempt to construct a model of the public conception of citizenship as based on access to the welfare state. Most importantly, however, the results of these findings will be used to comment on the possibilities for the use of the welfare state as a tool of integration, both nationally and at the EU level

Moral Autonomy as Political Analogy: Self-Legislation in Kant's 'Groundwork' and the 'Feyerabend Lectures on Natural Law'

'Autonomy' is originally a political notion. In this chapter, I argue that the political theory Kant defended while he was writing the _Groundwork_ sheds light on the difficulties that are commonly associated with his account of moral autonomy. I argue that Kant's account of the two-tiered structure of political legislation, in his _Feyerabend Lectures on Natural Law_, parallels his distinction between two levels of moral legislation, and that this helps to explain why Kant could regard the notion of 'autonomy' as apt to express the principle of morality---at least in the mid 1780s