Christian Pestalozza

Albert Rudolf Christian Graf von Pestalozza (* 20th July 1938 in Berlin ) is a German legal scholar and professor emeritus of Heads of State and Administrative Law at the Free University of Berlin .

He is also known as a book author and Basic Law commentator. He is valued in the media for his willingness to provide information and has been commissioned as a reviewer several times.

Life

Pestalozza studied from 1956 to 1961 with a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation at the Free University of Berlin, at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and at Cumberland Lodge . In 1957 and 1958 he passed interpreting exams in English and French. In 1961 he passed the first state examination in law. From 1965 to 1973 Pestalozza was a research assistant at Peter Lerche . In 1968 he passed the second state examination in law. In 1970 Pestalozza received his doctorate on the subject of the validity of unconstitutional laws. Comments on the control of norms on the occasion of the draft of a fourth law amending the law on the Federal Constitutional Court . In 1973 he completed his habilitation on the subject of “abuse of forms” by the state. On the figure and consequences of the “ abuse of rights ” and its application to state behavior .

From 1976 to 1980 Pestalozza was Professor of Public Law at the University of Bayreuth . In 1980 he took over a chair for constitutional and administrative law at the Free University of Berlin and headed the institute for constitutional, constitutional and administrative law. Pestalozza has been a member of the ethics committee of the Berlin Medical Association since 2003 and of the ethics committee of the State of Berlin since 2005. Even after his retirement in 2006, he continues to teach and research at the Free University of Berlin.

Research priorities

Pestalozzas research interests are in medical law , constitutional law of the federal and state governments, especially in Bavaria, Berlin and Brandenburg, Foreign Constitutional Law, Litigation , in particular constitutional and administrative procedural law and state liability law .

Positions

Statements on the 2005 Bundestag election

Pestalozza was one of the critics of the 2005 Bundestag election, which was brought about by a vote of confidence . In connection with the by-election required in Dresden , he demanded that the results of the Bundestag election on September 18 be kept under lock and key in order to avoid influencing the Dresden elections. Otherwise he sees the principle of free and equal elections being violated.

Tuition fees in Hessen

Pestalozza was commissioned by the Hessian state government in 2005 to confirm the admissibility of tuition fees according to the Hessian constitution . In his report, Pestalozza does not understand tuition fees as tuition fees, but as school fees . Thus, they are permissible according to the Hessian constitution and do not stand in opposition to the constitutional requirement of no remuneration. Tuition fees are even required, the amount can be largely freely determined by the universities, as long as there is no cross-financing of foreign subjects. The economic situation of those liable for payment is irrelevant when calculating the tuition fees.

Referendums

Pestalozza is one of the few German constitutional lawyers who had a fundamentally positive relationship with direct democracy from an early age . His much-cited work Der Popularvorbehalt (1981) is considered relevant by proponents of referendums . In it he wrote about the experiences in Weimar with parliamentarism and direct democracy:

“Weimar only taught one thing: the public authorities did not ask for the professional competence of the citizen. If we are looking for someone responsible for the legal system, Weimar is more likely to have broken down with parliamentarism than with direct democracy. Did that prevent us from starting again with the parliamentary system? Rightly not. But it spurred us on to do the same thing better. This alone is also the right attitude to the direct democratic features of the Weimar Constitution and its practical preservation. "

- 1981

Suffrage

In September 2019 he was one of about 100 constitutional law teachers who, with the open appeal for the right to vote, Downsized the Bundestag! turned to the German Bundestag .

Fonts (selection)

• The validity of unconstitutional laws: Comments on the control of norms on the occasion of the draft of a fourth law amending the law on the Federal Constitutional Court. In: Archives of Public Law. Vol. 96 (1971), H. 1, pp. 27-84 (abbreviated dissertation, University of Munich, 1971).
• "Abuse of forms" by the state: on the figure and consequences of "abuse of law" and its application to state behavior (= Munich University Writings . Series of the Faculty of Law. Vol. 28). Beck, Munich 1973 (habilitation thesis, University of Munich, 1973).
• Constitutional procedural problems in public law work: The constitutional proceedings in the federal and state levels. Beck, Munich 1976; 3rd, completely revised edition: Constitutional procedural law: The constitutional jurisdiction of the federal and state governments, with an appendix on international legal protection. Beck, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-406-33035-5 .
• Ed .: Constitutions of the German federal states. CHBeck, Munich 2014; 10th edition, ISBN 978-3-406-66242-3 .
• The popular reservation. Direct democracy in Germany (= publication series of the Legal Society eV Berlin. Issue 69). De Gruyter, Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-11-008630-1 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Christian Pestalozza in the catalog of the German National Library
• Christian Pestalozza on the website of the Free University of Berlin
• Opinion on the Bundestag's right to dissolve itself
• The concept of freedom of the Basic Law

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Der Popularvorbehalt , 1981, p. 29.
2. ↑ Call for the right to vote: "Verkleinert den Bundestag" , open letter from September 20, 2019 in Die Welt .