The Bundesrat of the Berlin Republic. Constitutional Theory and Institutional Development of the Federal Chamber in the German System of Government

• Applicant: Dr. Matthias Rossbach
• Subject Area: Public Law
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 507692408

The German Bundesrat is considered to be the "bedrock of German statehood". Constitutional scholarship on the Bundesrat therefore regularly begins with a reference to the continuity with its predecessors from the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. Such continuity, however, does not correspond to the realities of the Berlin Republic – neither normatively nor institutionally.This is where this research project comes in: In normative terms, it aims to elaborate a constitutional identity of the Bundesrat that is specific to the Federal Republic. It wants to reconstruct the constitutional theory of the Bundesrat with regard to the Berlin Republic as a new phase in the development of the Bundesrat. The goal of this project is thus a democratic theory of the Bundesrat that is categorically different from its predecessors. This will be achieved by a new legal analysis of the constitutional framework of the Bundesrat in the Berlin Republic which will take the form of a habilitation thesis. As a starting point, the Bundesrat of the Berlin Republic cannot be reduced to its legislative role alone. It can only be understood by taking into account its dynamic relationship to the Federal Government, the Bundestag, the state governments, and especially the political parties. This study will be accompanied by a systematic analysis of the procedural and organizational law of the Bundesrat, which has hardly been considered in the literature so far. There is a lack of theoretical and doctrinal analysis of the interaction between internal organization and external relations of the Bundesrat in the Berlin Republic. This project seeks to fill this research gap. It also intends to show that the specific design of the Bundesrat's internal organization and procedural law shape the Federal Republic, its politics and its institutional structure much more than is currently assumed. The project thus aims to further constitutional legal scholarship in two respects: first with regard to the normative framework governing the relationship between the Federal Government, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, and second with regard to the relationship of the Bundesrat's internal law to constitutional law. In addition, it seeks to further develop the understanding of the rules of procedure of the Bundesrat, which pose many unresolved legal questions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants