Varying Degrees of Openness Towards the International and Supranational Legal Sphere in the German Constitutional Order – A Contemporary Appraisal of and Reflection on Helmut Steinberger’s ‘Lines of Development in the Recent Case-Law of the Federal C

The article analyses key problem areas identified by Helmut Steinberger in his contribution on ‘Lines of Development in the Recent Case-Law of the Federal Constitutional Court on Questions of International Law’ (original German title ‘Entwicklungslinien in der neueren Rechtsprechung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts zu völkerrechtlichen Fragen’) from 1988 through the lensof the current body of the case-law of the Federal Constitutional Court. In particular, the focus is directed at the dualistic construction of the entanglement of the international legal order with the German constitutional order, the status and rank of the European Convention on Human Rights within the inner logic of German constitutional law, the possibility to invoke supranational fundamental rights within the constitutional complaint procedure before the Federal Constitutional Court, the aspect of the primacy of EU law, universal minimum standards as present within case-law of the Federal Constitutional Court and, finally, the limits of executive prerogatives within the international sphere. The article also reflects – from a broader perspective – on Steinberger’s shift of professional identities – from a judge of the Federal Constitutional Court to an academic and, in particular, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law commenting on decisions of the Court which he was co-responsible for.