Joint constitutional commission

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Joint Constitutional Commission ( GVK ) was the end of November by the two German 1991 legislative bodies Bundestag and Bundesrat used after Art. 5 of the Unification Treaty "with in the context of German unification issues raised amending or supplementing the Basic Law to deal, in particular

  • with regard to the relationship between the Federal Government and the Länder in accordance with the joint resolution of the Prime Ministers of July 5, 1990,
  • With regard to the possibility of a reorganization for the Berlin / Brandenburg area in deviation from the provisions of Article 29 of the Basic Law by agreement of the states involved,
  • with the considerations for the inclusion of state objectives in the Basic Law and
  • with the question of the application of Article 146 of the Basic Law and in the context of a referendum. "

The body was constituted on January 16, 1992 and was a compromise between the confirmation of the previous Basic Law and the demand for a new constitution for the united Germany . Under the chairmanship of Henning Voscherau ( SPD ) and Rupert Scholz ( CDU ), the 64 members discussed changes to the Basic Law that had become necessary due to the association. It was mostly about

Numerous social groups tried to exert influence through initiative motions. Ultimately, however, especially in the federalism reform , there were marginal recommendations for correcting the Basic Law.

On November 5, 1993, the commission presented its final report ( Bundestag printed matter 12/6000). Major changes are just as unnecessary as a referendum on the Basic Law, which could no longer add anything to its existing legitimacy . This corresponds to the prevailing view in the constitutional literature, according to which the lack of a vote by the people or any other kind of plebiscite can not be seen as a legitimation deficit of the Basic Law. Nonetheless, the report also points to the integrating effect in the event of a referendum .

The law amending the Basic Law of October 27, 1994 only partially followed the Commission's proposals. It amended Articles 3 , 28 , 72, 74, 75, 76, 77, 80, 87 and 93 of the Basic Law and added the new Articles 20a , 118a and 125a to it. Further proposals of the commission for anchoring state goals as well as for the protection of animals and minorities were not taken into account in the law amending the Basic Law of 1994.

literature

  • Peter Fischer: Reform instead of revolution. The Joint Constitutional Commission of the Bundestag and Bundesrat , Research Group Germany: Series of publications, Volume 5, 1995, ISBN 3-980-45300-6 .
  • Rupert Scholz : On the work of the joint constitutional commission of the Bundestag and Bundesrat , in: Klaus Stern (Ed.), German Reunification , Vol. IV ( On the Reform of the Basic Law ), Cologne [u. a.] 1993, p. 5 ff.
  • Markus Bremers: The Joint Constitutional Commission. Requirements, discussion, results and assessment , Master's thesis, Bonn 1994.
  • Contributions by Scholz, Voscherau, Busch, Zapfe, Fischer, Holtschneider, Mayer-Teschendorf, Hofmann, Klotz and Meyer in: From Politics and Contemporary History (APuZ) B 52–53 / 93.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Key points of the states for the federal order in a united Germany , in: Deutsche Einheit. Documents on Germany policy. Special edition from the files of the Federal Chancellery 1989/90. Edited by Federal Ministry of the Interior with the participation of the Federal Archives. Edit v. Hanns Jürgen Küsters and Daniel Hofmann. Oldenbourg, Munich 1998, pp. 1305 ff .; Digital Library Volume 21, Directmedia, Berlin 1999, pp. 3839 ff. No. 324A. Also in Helge Batt: The Reform of the Basic Law […] (1996), p. 172 ff.
  2. ↑ BT-Drs. 12/6000, p. 111 f.
  3. ↑ Cf. Eckart Klein , On the threshold for the reunification of Germany , in: Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 17/1990, pp. 1065-1073, here p. 1069.
  4. ↑ BT-Drs. 12/6000, p. 110 f.
  5. ↑ Federal Law Gazette I pp. 3146-3148 .
  6. ^ A b Dieter Hesselberger : The Basic Law . Commentary for political education. 11th edition. Hermann Luchterhand Verlag, Neuwied 1999, p. 39 .

Web links