ABSTRACT
The relationship between private law and human rights provisions, codified in an entrenched constitution, is one of the grands thèmes of German post-1945 legal doctrine and jurisprudence. Summarised under the heading Drittwirkung, a typically Germanic compound word indicating – in abstract terms – the effect (Wirkung) of something which is regarded as essentially bipolar in nature (in this case fundamental rights) on an outsider to the relationship in question (a third party or Dritter), the issue has over the past decades attracted much attention on both sides of the country’s fairly distinct public-private law divide. A series of important court decisions (mainly in the areas of family law, banking, employment relationships and personality rights) and a highly controversial government initiative designed to meet the requirements of European antidiscrimination law,1 have in recent years yet again provoked keen academic, judicial and public interest in the issue.2
