Judge-made law has played a crucial role in the process of European integration. In the vertical dimension, it has greatly reduced the range of autonomous policy choices in the member states, and it has helped to expand the reach of European competences. At the same time, however, "Integration...

In order to be simultaneously effective and liberal, governments must normally be able to count on voluntary compliance - which, in turn, depends on the support of socially shared legitimacy beliefs. In Western constitutional democracies, such beliefs are derived from the distinct but coexistent...

The function of legitimacy is to ensure voluntary compliance with unwelcome exercises of governing authority. Since practically all European law needs to be implemented and enforced by the governments and courts of the member states, the EU does not have to face its citizens directly. It follows...

Der deutsche Föderalismus, der lange als Fundament der westdeutschen Erfolgsgeschichte gefeiert wurde, gilt jetzt als die eigentliche Ursache der deutschen Malaise. In der Tat haben die auf Konsens angelegten Institutionen des "unitarischen Bundesstaats" und der "Politikverflechtung" in den...

European integration has created a constitutional asymmetry between policies promoting market efficiencies and policies promoting social protection and equality. National welfare states are legally and economically constrained by European rules of economic integration, liberalization, and...

The reform of German federalism was meant to overcome the mutually imposed constraints on autonomous political action at the federal and Land levels. The proposals that are now to be discussed in parliament will provide some improvement, but are far from adequate in light of the original goals...

The unique institutions that make up Germany's "unitary federal state," long considered part of the country's post-war success story, are now generally perceived as a "joint-decision trap" impeding effective policy responses to new economic and demographic challenges at both levels of...

In der Entwicklung des deutschen Bundesstaates lassen sich drei Phasen unterscheiden: Die anfänglich ungebremste Unitarisierung der Gesetzgebung und Zentralisierung der Finanzbeziehungen wurde seit Mitte der sechziger Jahre korrigiert durch die Institutionalisierung eines "kooperativen...