The Separation of Powers Doctrine and the Power of Participation: Citizen's Influence in Delegated Rule-Making in the United States, the European Union and Germany

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Dominik Steiger
• Subject Area: Public Law
• Term: from 2014 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 267028657

Participation is a powerful tool which influences the exercise of public authority within all branches of government. Calls for more citizens' involvement in the exercise of public authority are increasingly heard around the world. Whereas the United States possesses an impressive record of citizen's participation, this is quite different with regard to the European Union and Germany. However, in the latter two legal orders participation has been punctually enhanced in the last years. This process of developing further participation opportunities has just commenced.In order to analyze the theoretical foundations of participation, the envisaged study on "The Separation of Powers Doctrine and the Power of Participation: Citizen's Influence in Delegated Rule-Making in the United States, the European Union and Germany" aims at developing a model of participation in the exercise of public authority, i.e. with regard to all three branches of government. This model is required for answering two important questions: firstly, who shall participate in the exercise of public authority and secondly, with which legal effect shall participation take place.As these questions cannot be answered by participation itself, an understanding of the separation of powers doctrine as the organizational principle balancing collective self-determination and individual self-determination shall be utilized in order to conceptualize participation. This seems appropriate as the separation of powers doctrine as well as participation are concerned with the protection of individual rights, (partaking in) collective decision-making and the efficiency of public authority.In order to assess the practical impact and benefit of the model, participation in the executive's delegated rulemaking procedures in the United States, the European Union and Germany will be analyzed. In this respect, it will be examined whether and how the far more advanced participation provisions with regard to rulemaking in the United States can be utilized to enhance participation in the European Union and Germany.Besides its comparative law approach it uses a holistic approach which has not been applied as of yet. Although participation and direct democracy are being much discussed in academia for a number of years now - especially since the mass protests against Stuttgart 21 which started in 2010 - the discussion is limited to considering only one branch of government: On the one hand the discussion revolves around participation with regard to the legislature, on the other hand it is being analyzed how participation could be integrated into the executive branch. Yet, by concentrating on only one branch of government, the participation discussion fails to understand the underlying mechanisms of participation. Quite to the contrary, this study will follow a new approach taking into account all three branches of government. In short, I plan to develop a much needed comprehensive theory of participation

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professorin Dr. Gráinne de Búrca