German constitutional design: Germany’s Basic Law turns 75

In 2024, the Basic Law of Germany (Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) turned 75 years old. Originally conceived as a temporary constitutional document, the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany has evolved over the years into a permanent constitution of the modern unified German state. The author sees his main task in the analysing of the current Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany and the identifying of the unique features of German constitutional design. The most important qualitative characteristic of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany is the presence of immutable constitutional values, which are protected by the mechanism of eternal guarantees (Ewigkeitsklausel or Ewigkeitsgarantie), preventing both the change and revision of the constitutional text regarding the federal structure of Germany, regarding participation of the German Federal States (Bundesländer) in the federal legislative process, as well as constitutional norms on the supreme value of human rights and freedoms, and on the inviolability of human dignity (Menschenwürdekern), which, in essence, has a gravitational character in relation to all other constitutional rights and freedoms of a human and citizen. The author intentionally focuses on studying the content of the German constitutional concept of a modern democratic state capable of self-defense against the enemies of democracy (Konzeption der „wehrhaften Demokratie“), as well as on studying the role of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, which, within the German legal system, both de jure and de facto performs the function of guarantor of the constitution. The author comes to the conclusion that a minimum set of constitutional mechanisms that protect the Basic Law of the state from constitutionally hostile actions (namely, the immutable constitutional values and their eternal guarantees) will also be useful for the evolutionary development of the Russian Federation as a democratic and legal state.