ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part shows that German advertising law embodies restrictive notions of what constitutes commercial competition and permissible commercial speech. It provides a comparative overview of German and American employment discrimination laws, and suggests that the German laws reflect Germany’s limited experience, as a society, with protection of minority rights. The part argues that the residency requirement for German lawyers has effectively prevented meaningful competition in the legal field. The Basic Law has provided a workable modality for German unification and continues to serve, with minimal alteration, as the legal foundation for unified Germany. The rapidity of German unification was directly facilitated by the procedure for accession contained in the Basic Law. German unification depended on and simultaneously precipitated a host of dramatic changes in the postwar international legal order, which, taken together, removed the remaining limitations on German sovereignty and answered the longstanding German question.
