Book Reviews Decisions of the Bundesverfassungsgericht- Federal Constitutional Court - Federal Republic of Germany Vols. 1/I and 1/II International Law and Law of the Euro-pean Communities 1952-1989. Published by Members of the Court. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft 1992, 766 pages, index. Some people undertake the admirable task of learning French in order to read the works of Rousseau, Montesquieu, or, later, Foucault or Derrida in their original version. It is even said that a few have decided to put up with the immense compound words, the opaque grammatical rules, and the confusing order of words that are so peculiarly German, to be able to enjoy Kant, Hegel, Weber, or Habermas untranslated. In each case, the pleasure seems to outweigh the considerable pains. In contrast, the motivational pull of German court decisions to induce non-German speakers to purchase a six week language course appears to equal zero. This is, while not surprising, unfortunate. The German Federal Constitutional Court, located at the centre of the German system of centralized judicial review, has since its inception in 1951 enjoyed an excellent reputation. Its decisions have always constituted a balanced, deliberate voice in constitutional and political discourse. Their tone, albeit at times pretentious, is characterized by a thoughtfulness that is often a relief to a reader wearied by the sometimes raucous performances on the German political stage. There is little hope that I will convince the reader to learn German solely to enjoy the aesthetics of the Constitutional Court's decisions. Therefore it should also be noted that the Court, like constitutional courts all over the world, has assumed immense power and must be counted among the key players in the German political system. Students of comparative politics will hardly be able to do without knowledge of the Court and the influence it wields over political decision-making in Germany. The Court's decisions also have a significant effect on the German societal and cultural sphere, necessitating that students of social science and cultural theory keep an eye on the Court as well. Indeed, if we subscribe to a view which affirms the preeminence of intentional human control over history, and if we believe in the self and the community as being both the basis of politics as well as one of its products, then the Court must figure prominently in any account. As if this weren't enough, the Federal Constitutional Court has also assumed an important role on the international plane. The absence of doctrines of justiciability (above all the political questions doctrine of American constitutional law) with regard to scrutiny of governmental and legislative acts in the area of foreign affairs has no doubt contributed to the Court's impact. Its role coincides with the vigorous claim that any thorough study of international processes of decision-making needs to accurately analyse domestic players and their contributions. Anyone in the field of international law and international relations who takes this claim seriously will not get around decisions from Karlsruhe (the seat of the Bundesverfassungsgericht). The language barrier, however, may have caused scholars here and there to back off and let the Court be. With Germany's increasing role in Europe and the world on the whole this is a stance increasingly untenable. If any proof of this was necessary, it came in 1993 and 1994. First the Maastricht decision, holding the Maastricht Treaty constitutional and thus clearing the way for ratification and further European integration, and later the decision on the deployment of German armed forces 'out of area' rocked the legal and political world far beyond German boundaries (and were mainly greeted with almost audible sighs of relief from the political system - at least as to their substantial outcome, if not to their reasoning). It will be noted with satisfaction, then, that the times of skimming past volumes of International Legal Materials or the Common Market Law Review for important Court decisions from 1974 or 1981 are over. The Constitutional Court, together with Nomos publishers, has finally decided to edit a selection of English language versions of its decisions. The first volume in this series, in two parts, is dedicated to decisions related to international law and the law of the European Communities, correctly identifying scholars of international and European law as the primary and most interested target group. It contains such important decisions as the two "Solange" decisions (ruling on the competency to review European Communities legislation), the 1973 decision holding constitutional the Act ratifying the 1972 Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, and the decisions on the installation of nuclear-equipped American intermediate- range missiles on German territory. A working committee of several judges of the Court decided which decisions should be selected for publication, and their choice is prudent and thoughtful. It is a special virtue of the collection to render the forty decisions, handed down between 1952 and 1989, basically unabridged (only the description of the facts have been abbreviated, without any loss). Former Justices Hans Joachim Faller and Theodor Ritterspach prepared the decisions for translation. The overwhelmingly difficult and demanding task of actually translating them was carried out - in an excellent and indeed awe-inspiring manner - by I. Fraser, P. Aliferis, and D.C. Umbach. The selection deserves wide dissemination and, no doubt, will become an indispensable research tool of a wide range of scholars. Court and publishers have begun a long overdue and unreservedly laudable project. Roman Herzog, then President of the Federal Constitutional Court and now President of the Federal Republic of Germany, writes in his Preface to the collection that "[i]n the future such decisions will be published on a continuing basis." As four years have gone by since the publication of this initial compilation, I hope that his words have not been forgotten in the Court or with the publishers. Ulrich R. Haltern Harvard Law School
	© 1990-2004 European Journal of International Law All comments and suggestions should be sent to webmaster This site is part of the Academy of European Law online, a joint partnership of the Jean Monnet Center at NYU School of Law and the Academy of European Law at the European University Institute. This file was last modified: Tuesday, October 14, 2003 12:26PM