ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) after the reunification, based on the analysis of the strength of the Court’s jurisdiction. It briefly introduces the main features of the Court’s organization with an emphasis on the two (basically independently operating) Senates, their competences and jurisdictions. In addition, this contribution briefly points, historically, to the ambition and interest of the FCC to become one of the most powerful constitutional Courts in Europe and beyond, backed by high levels of trust of the German people. Do these factors foster a rather activist role of the FCC? This question is at the core of this chapter. The FCC has always been a “busy” Court with a high workload and manifold opportunity structures to become a politically powerful Court. However, the empirical findings suggest the judges have resisted this temptation at large. Instead, they seem to have established a rather refined way of delivering strong rulings on occasions without imposing the type of judicial activism that ultimately transforms the power-sharing structure of the German political system.
