The Present and Future Meaning of the State and the role of the Federal Constitutional Court — Interview

Abstract

In this exclusive interview with Federal Constitutional Court Justice, Professor Udo Di Fabio, GLJ looks forward to some of the challenges the Court will face in next fifty years, especially the meaning for the Court of domestic (privatization) and international (europeanization) changes to the role of the nation state. The interview begins with an exploration of the nature and role of the Federal Constitutional Court in light of radical changes in the law as well as the social sciences. Justice Di Fabio also addresses the Court's narrow role as an interpreter of legal texts, noting that the Court performs this function while also exercising broader, quasi-legislative authority within a pluralistic and post-traditional society. The interview then turns to questions related to the role of the state and the traditional public structuring of societal authority as set against the general turn to societal self-structuring, especially in the context of the debate over the nature of the European Union's authority.