Constitution and Constitutional Treaty

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Constitution and Constitutional Treaty. Constitutional stages of development in the USA and the EU is a document that the former German Bundestag member Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg submitted as a legal dissertation to the University of Bayreuth at the end of 2006 . For this he initially received the doctoral degree with the top grade summa cum laude .

In February 2011, constitutional lawyer Andreas Fischer-Lescano published an article in a legal journal in which he referred to some unrecognized or poorly reported quotations in the work, the author of which was now Federal Minister of Defense . This triggered the Guttenberg plagiarism affair .

The constitution and the constitutional treaty were examined by a commission from the University of Bayreuth, which found deliberate fraud in May 2011, and publicly by pseudonymous authors on the GuttenPlag Wiki website .

One week after the start of the plagiarism affair, Guttenberg's doctorate was revoked. Another six days later, after growing criticism, he resigned from all federal political offices.

Emergence

Guttenberg passed the first examination (also known as the first state examination ), but did not pass the second state examination ( second state examination ) and thus did not acquire the qualification for judicial office . In addition, he only achieved the exam grade “satisfactory” and not “ fully satisfactory ”, so he had to apply for a special permit for a doctorate. This was given by the then dean Karl-Georg Loritz , a former chairman of the Junge Union in Schwandorf. According to a press report, such special permits are “obviously not infrequent” under certain conditions.

The constitutional law teacher Peter Häberle , who until 2002 held a professorship at the Faculty of Law and Economics at the University of Bayreuth , supervised Guttenberg's doctoral thesis as a doctoral supervisor even after his retirement . In 2000, a chair for medical management and health sciences was donated to his faculty. For this, the Rhön-Klinikum -AG donated around 750,000 euros from 1999 to 2006. The Guttenberg family held almost 27 percent of the shares in it until February 2002. Guttenberg was a member of its supervisory board from 1996 to 2002. Therefore, the suspicion arose that the university had not awarded him the doctoral degree for his academic achievement, but because of his role as a sponsor of the university, and that he had bought it.

The Faculty of Law and Economics at the University of Bayreuth accepted Guttenberg's dissertation in 2006 and awarded it the highest grade summa cum laude in 2007 . The second reviewer was Rudolf Streinz , who has been a liaison professor of the CSU-affiliated Hanns Seidel Foundation at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich since 2003 . Guttenberg held the defense of the thesis on February 27, 2007, and on May 7, 2007 the university granted him the provisional title of doctorate. Guttenberg published his dissertation at the Berlin specialist publisher Duncker & Humblot , which published it on January 15, 2009 as a book with an edition of 400 printed copies. After submitting the deposit copies to the university, Guttenberg was allowed to hold the degree of Doctor of Law on a permanent basis from January 28, 2009 .

According to Guttenberg, the production took about seven years and was started in 2000, before the start of his political career (2002). In the foreword he wrote that his dissertation arises from an "unusual chain of fortunes". Due to “freelance and later parliamentary 'distraction'”, he did not initially complete it through a “mixture of brazen professorial patience (such as kindness), gentle but relentless family pressure and probably a bit of deplorable vanity”.

expenditure

The dissertation was published in 2009 as volume 176 in the series of writings on international law (SIR) published by Duncker & Humblot .

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Most of the typefaces in this series are editorially controlled. The differences between the work submitted as part of the doctoral process and the print version are not yet known. The imprint of the book states: “The Faculty of Law and Economics at the University of Bayreuth accepted this thesis as a dissertation in 2006.” An update or revision of the work is not indicated there. In the foreword, however, the following is mentioned: "The considerations and references to this monograph (submitted in 2006) now go into 2007 - apart from a few thoughts that have been updated at certain points." The foreword is dated as follows: "Berlin, in winter 2008".

The printed book edition was sold by the publishing house and book trade until February 2011 at a price of 88 euros. In addition, the work was sold as an electronic resource to libraries and institutions as part of the publisher's “eLibrary” offer , and in February 2011 it was also offered as an e-book in bookstores at a price of 80 euros. Furthermore, the publisher offered the print edition together with the e-book edition for 106 euros.

The book is out of print and will not be reprinted. The publisher also removed the digitized offers from its program.

content

The work comprises 475 pages and 1218 footnotes, with 393 pages of the actual text (pp. 15–407). The appendix (p. 408 ff.) Contains several sources, including two papers by the CDU / CSU parliamentary group as well as non-ratified amendments to the United States Constitution , a list of literature and subject terms.

The dissertation compares - methodologically strongly influenced by the cultural studies approach of the supervisor of the dissertation, Peter Häberle - the constitutional development in the United States with the development of the European Union with regard to the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe .

For this purpose, part B of the thesis presents the political foundations and debates that were of importance for American (Chapter B I) and European constitutional history (Chapter B II). In this context, the social functions of a constitution are examined and the role played by the courts in both international communities is analyzed.

Chapter B III deals with the influence of the United States on the process of European unification in the sense of the European policy of the USA. Chapter B IV compares essential structural elements of the constitutional orders in three thematic complexes: the constitution and the procedures for constitutional amendment; the interpretation of the constitution and the role of the courts as well as the constitutional principles (e.g. the distribution of competencies and principles such as democracy or separation of powers).

“Lessons” for the development of the European constitution are derived from the results (Chapter B V); this includes, on the one hand, the insight that the constitution is not the only source of a “stable order of the constituted unity”, but rather comes alongside the actual constitutional reality. Nor should the constitution be enforced at any price; the actors should think more long-term and try more for a broad public discussion. Ultimately, it is important that the European Union strengthen its foreign and security policy capacity to act - this was exactly one of the “leitmotifs of the Federalist Papers ”.

Finally, Part C examines the relationship to God in European and American constitutional texts and uses this comparison to answer the politically controversial question of a relationship to God in the constitution of the European Union. On this point the work calls into question the exemplary function of the American Constitution.

Reviews

The published dissertation was reviewed for the first time in 2009 in the legal journal Bayerische Verwaltungsblätter and again in the journal Public Administration . Both reviews were positive. Alexander Camann wrote a third for the FAZ on March 18, 2009. He limited his criticism to an ironic comment on the foreword of the dissertation, which Guttenberg had called a product of deplorable vanity.

The fourth review was created by the Bremen constitutional law professor Andreas Fischer-Lescano for the legal journal Kritische Justiz, which he co-edited . It was published on February 16, 2011 and rated the scientific output as "modest". The work has substantial flaws, meanders to itself and wears the readers down with pages of “political speech” and the “retelling of legal political discussions in the Convention”. Guttenberg "does not even begin to make clear what the current knowledge value of the pages of documentation on the references to God in constitutional texts is" in Part C of the work. The verdict “summa cum laude” therefore seems more than flattering. In the same review, Fischer-Lescano also complains in more than 20 text passages of "copyright problematic passages" and therefore asked the University of Bayreuth to review the doctorate.

Plagiarism finds and their consequences

The Süddeutsche Zeitung published the plagiarism discovered by Lescano on February 16, 2011. On the same day, journalists and bloggers found further plagiarism in the introduction to the work.

In order to continue the search for plagiarism on the Internet and to coordinate it effectively, the GuttenPlag Wiki was founded on February 17th. By March 30, 2011, those involved found plagiarism on 94.14% of the pages of the text corpus. These include unreported quotations from a total of seven reports that Guttenberg had unapprovedly prepared by the scientific services of the German Bundestag and adopted verbatim or slightly changed, as well as unrelated quotations and footnotes from a standard work by his doctoral supervisor.

After the revocation of his doctorate on February 23 and growing public criticism, Guttenberg resigned from his political offices on March 1, 2011 and renounced his parliamentary mandate on March 3, so that his immunity was extinguished. In his reasons for resignation, he did not address the question of deliberate plagiarism, which he has always denied.

A commission for “self-regulation in science” at the University of Bayreuth, convened on February 16, examined the work up to May 6, 2011 with the result: Guttenberg had “evidently grossly violated the standards of good scientific practice and deliberately misled them”. The incorporation of plagiarism throughout the entire work, especially those of the reports of the Scientific Service, and their linguistic changes show a “conscious approach” with which he assumed authorship.

After more than 100 criminal charges, the Hof public prosecutor mainly investigated copyright violations, but also breach of trust and fraud. In a press release dated November 23, 2011, the public prosecutor's office in Hof announced that 23 text passages were able to be worked out in the dissertation that contained criminally relevant copyright violations. However, the economic damage suffered by the injured authors is only marginal. In addition, of the 199 criminal charges against Guttenberg, only one was from an affected rights holder. Therefore, the court and public prosecutor's office in Hof closed the proceedings with a payment requirement of 20,000 euros to the children's cancer aid.

The university libraries in Göttingen , Osnabrück and Münster provided catalogs and printed copies of the dissertation with warnings about plagiarism. The university president Gerhard Mammen had a "Guttenberg corner" designed by the University of Applied Sciences in Ansbach , which presented the work as an example of an approach to be avoided, removed.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Andreas Fischer-Lescano : Karl-Theodor Frhr. zu Guttenberg, Constitution and Constitutional Treaty. Constitutional stages of development in the USA and the EU . In: Kritische Justiz , 1/2011, pp. 112–119 ( PDF ; 169 kB).
  2. ↑ The study room is not his stage ( FAZ from February 20, 2011)
  3. ↑ Guttenberg needed special permission for a doctorate , FAZ.net , March 1, 2011.
  4. ↑ a b Plagiarism and deception: A science in itself , Der Tagesspiegel , February 22, 2011.
  5. ↑ a b Guttenberg affair. Doctorate for the university sponsor? , in: Handelsblatt dated February 24, 2011; Retrieved February 26, 2011.
  6. ↑ Hypovereinsbank is involved in Rhön Klinikum . In: Handelsblatt of March 13, 2002.
  7. ↑ Thomas Steinmann: Guttenberg relied on a second reviewer close to the CSU. February 24, 2011, archived from the original on February 26, 2011 ; Retrieved February 25, 2011 .
  8. ^ Guttenberg dissertation: Duncker & Humblot is waiting for the Bayreuth examination result. In: Börsenblatt online from February 21, 2011.
  9. ↑ Bayerischer Rundfunk ( plagiarism affair: The title is gone ( memento from February 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ))
  10. ^ Statement by Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg , Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved February 21, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zuguttenberg.de 
  11. ^ Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg : Zu Guttenberg takes a position on allegations of plagiarism . On: website of the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg), press and information staff, February 18, 2011, with video stream ; Retrieved February 20, 2011.
  12. ↑ zu Guttenberg, Constitution and Constitutional Order , p. 6 .; Klaus Wolschner: Bad botched, well caught . In: taz of February 17, 2011; accessed February 20, 2011; Ronald Schenkel: Science depends on trust . In: NZZ of February 17, 2011; accessed February 20, 2011; Heike Göbel: Guttenberg and the Kairos . In: FAZ from February 23, 2009; Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  13. ^ Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg: Constitution and Constitutional Treaty. Constitutional stages of development in the USA and the EU. Writings on international law, No. 176.Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-428-12534-0 DNB 992131669
  14. ↑ Buchhandel.de: Title page, prices and table of contents of the e-book editions of the dissertation
  15. ↑ Carsten Heidböhmer: Publisher Florian Simon about Guttenberg's book: Out of stock and damned , stern.de, February 23, 2011.
  16. ↑ Guttenberg dissertation is currently not available. Author before sales , buchreport.de, February 21, 2011.
  17. ^ Matthias Wiemers (lawyer and legal advisor of the Rhine-Main Chamber of Crafts): Review in: The Public Administration , January 2010, Issue 1; Excerpts: website of the publisher ; Retrieved February 20, 2011.
  18. ^ Hans Hablitzel : Review , in: Bayerische Verwaltungsblätter (2009), ISSN  0522-5337 , p. 446.
  19. ↑ Alexander Camann: Guttenbergs Kairos. About a mumbled preface of the highest quality. Review in: FAZ, p. 32, rubric new non-fiction books ( full text via gbv.de offered by the joint library network , accessed on March 9, 2011, PDF, 5.1 kB).
  20. ^ Roland Preuss, Tanjev Schultz: Plagiarism allegation against Defense Minister. Guttenberg is said to have written off his doctoral thesis . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of February 16, 2011; Retrieved February 20, 2011.
  21. ↑ GuttenPlag Wiki: GuttenPlag-2006 (statistics of all checked plagiarism finds, status: March 10, 2011); Retrieved March 10, 2011.
  22. ↑ GuttenPlag Wiki, March 8, 2011: Guttenberg's watering can .
  23. ↑ FAZ.net, March 1, 2011: Guttenberg's declaration of resignation in full
  24. ↑ University of Bayreuth, May 6, 2011: Case zu Guttenberg: Commission presents its final report ( memento of the original from May 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.uni-bayreuth.de
  25. ↑ Der Spiegel, March 7, 2011: Plagiarism affair: Public prosecutor initiates investigations against Guttenberg
  26. ↑ dradio.de, November 23, 2011: acquittal with comeback option
  27. ↑ Der Spiegel, March 10, 2011: Learning from the black sheep: FH President removes "Guttenberg corner"