Christoph Degenhart

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Christoph Degenhart (2017)

Christoph Degenhart (* 3. December 1949 in Munich ) is a German heads of state and administrative law .

Life

Degenhart is the son of the lawyer Max Degenhart (1910–1974), who u. a. Senate President at the Bavarian Supreme Court and co-author of Palandt was. Christoph Degenhart studied law at the Universities of Munich and Lausanne . During his studies he received a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation and the Cusanuswerk . He passed his state exams in 1973 and 1976. In 1975 he received his doctorate ; In 1980 the habilitation followed .

First he taught in Erlangen before he accepted an appointment at the University of Münster in 1981 . In 1991 he moved to the University of Leipzig to help found the law faculty there. From 1992 until his retirement in October 2016, he held the chair for constitutional and administrative law there. His successor on the chair was Hubertus Gersdorf .

Degenhart was also director of the Institute for Broadcasting Law . In 1998 he was elected by the Saxon State Parliament as an expert member of the Media Council of the Saxon State Authority for Private Broadcasting and New Media and re-elected in 2004. After the law did not allow re-election, his term of office ended in December 2010. In November 2010, Degenhart was elected by the Saxon State Parliament as a full, non-professional judge member of the Constitutional Court of the Free State of Saxony , of which he had previously been a deputy member.

Degenhart's main research areas are constitutional law, media law and sub-areas of environmental law (nuclear law). Degenhart is a permanent employee of the journal Kommunikation und Recht as well as a member of the advisory board of the Revista catalana de dret public ; he is a member of the board of trustees of Mehr Demokratie .

Litigator

Degenhart was and is a legal representative in proceedings before the Federal Constitutional Court, the Federal Administrative Court and constitutional courts of the federal states as well as the European Court of Justice.

He has u. a. represented six federal states in the standards control process against the federal tuition fee ban and the federal government in the process surrounding the Garzweiler open-cast lignite mine . As a representative of Mehr Demokratie, he co-authored a constitutional complaint filed in 2012 about the euro rescue package and the European fiscal pact . Degenhart represented several complainants from the business world in a constitutional complaint against the QE program, i.e. the bond purchases by the ECB . With a judgment of May 5, 2020, the Federal Constitutional Court upheld the constitutional complaint and for the first time in its history refused to obey a judgment of the European Court of Justice. Degenhart has u. a. On behalf of the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers, the process surrounding the Tagesschau app , which in 2015 was judged to be illegal by the Federal Court of Justice in 2015 , was accompanied by an expert. On behalf of the rental company Sixt , he filed a constitutional complaint against the radio license fee. Degenhart represents the parliamentary group Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen in the Bavarian state parliament before the Bavarian Constitutional Court in a case concerning the constitutionality of the PAG Reorganization Act 2018, which concerns the constitutionality of the expanded powers of the police under the Bavarian Police Task Act.

Expert opinions and statements

Constitutionality of the broadcasting fee

Degenhart prepared an expert opinion on the legality of the license fee for the German Trade Association , which was comprehensively reformed in 2013 as a license fee. Degenhart came to the conclusion that the levying was in fact a tax and also "levied several times and in unequal ways" and thus violated the Basic Law. However, the constitutional complaints against the radio license fee for business premises and commercial vehicles were rejected by the Federal Constitutional Court.

Constitutionality of the SPD membership vote

For members of the SPD vote for the coalition agreement in 2013 Degenhart spoke constitutional concerns. In his view, the vote of the members would create a de facto binding of the MPs to the result of the vote and devalue the voting decision, this is in contradiction to Art. 38 of the Basic Law (free parliamentary mandate). Degenhart was not involved in the constitutional complaint against the member survey, which the Federal Constitutional Court rejected as inadmissible. The Federal Constitutional Court was based on the fact that the membership vote only represents an internal party opinion; as such it is not an act of public authority that could be attacked with a constitutional complaint. It is not legally binding and therefore not at all binding for the MPs, there is no significant difference to the usual group discipline.

BR classic

After it became known that Bayerischer Rundfunk intended to broadcast its classic program BR-Klassik only digitally via DAB and no longer via VHF, Degenhart prepared a legal opinion on behalf of the Association of Private Broadcasting and Telemedia (VPRT) in which the BR's plan was a violation against the State Broadcasting Treaty and against the basic service mandate of the BR. The BR plan was no longer pursued.

2015 refugee crisis

Degenhart is of the opinion that the federal government should have involved parliament in 2015. It was an "essential decision" due to the financial burdens on the federal budget and the far-reaching domestic political consequences for the Federal Republic. Degenhart rejects the fact that the Bundestag's consent should only have been required within the framework of Article 59 (2) sentence 1 of the Basic Law, arguing that it is not a genuine matter in the area of ​​external violence. A lawsuit before the Federal Constitutional Court , as Bavaria repeatedly threatened, would, in his opinion, have had little chance of success.

Publications (excerpt)

  • Constitutional law I. State organization law. 35th edition CF Müller, Heidelberg 2019, ISBN 978-3-8114-9359-9 .
  • Exam course in constitutional law I. 5th edition CF Müller, Heidelberg 2019, ISBN 978-3-8114-9742-9 .
  • Exam course in constitutional law II with references to European law. 8th edition CF Müller, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8114-9745-0 .
  • Commentary on Art. 5 GG. In: Rudolf Dolzer (complete ed.): Bonn Commentary on the Basic Law. Vol. 2, Art. 5, Loseblatt, Heidelberg 1991, revision 2017, ISBN 978-3-8114-1053-4 (basic work).
  • Commentary on Articles 70–74, 125 a and b, 101–104 GG. In: Michael Sachs (Ed.): Basic Law. 8th edition. C. H. Beck, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-406-66886-9 .
  • Legislative due diligence in the energy transition - constitutional questions of the 13th AtG amendment . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2013, ISBN 978-3-8487-0295-4 .
  • Author in: Detlef Merten , Hans-Jürgen paper (ed.): Handbook of basic rights . CF Müller, Heidelberg:
    • Volume 3: Fundamental Rights in Germany - General Teachings II . 2009, ISBN 978-3-8114-3502-5 , therein: § 61 Fundamental Rights Development and Restriction of Fundamental Rights .
    • Volume 4: Fundamental rights in Germany - individual fundamental rights I . 2011, ISBN 978-3-8114-4443-0 , therein: § 105 freedom of broadcasting .

Over 300 articles and monographs from various areas of public law : media law, state organization law and fundamental rights, construction law, environmental law, nuclear law.

Web links

Commons : Christoph Degenhart  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Career of Prof. Dr. Christoph Degenhart
  2. ^ Constitutional Court of the Free State of Saxony ( Memento from July 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Constitutional complaint on the euro rescue package and the fiscal contract. on: verfassungsbeschwerde.eu
  4. ↑ Gigi Deppe: Broadcasting contribution put to the test - constitutional judges focus on problem areas. SWR Aktuell, May 16, 2018.
  5. ^ Constitutional lawyer calls GEZ fee unconstitutional In: Handelsblatt January 25, 2013.
  6. ^ Rolf Schwartmann: Practical Guide to Media, IT and Copyright. 4th edition, CF Müller, Heidelberg 2018, Chapter 4, Rn 69 (p. 125).
  7. ↑ Bavarian judgment on Rossmann lawsuit: Broadcasting contribution is constitutional In: Der Spiegel May 15, 2014.
  8. ^ Constitutional lawyer questions SPD survey on coalition agreement In: Handelsblatt. November 29, 2013.
  9. ↑ BVerfG has no reservations about the SPD membership decision. In: Legal Tribute Online. December 6, 2013.
  10. ↑ The fifty-page report is available for download on various homepages, for example here: Verband Privater Rundfunk und Telemedien eV (as of December 28, 2015) German Music Information Center (as of December 28, 2015)
  11. ↑ Blunt: The Call for a "Return to Law" in Managing the Refugee Crisis - An Examination of the Legality of Current Government Action . In: DÖV . 2016, p. 357 ff .
  12. ^ Degenhart: Staatsrecht I Staatsorganisationsrecht . 32nd edition. 2016, p. 16 .
personal data
SURNAME Degenhart, Christoph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German constitutional and administrative lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich