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German Constitutionalism: A Prolegomenon, Donald P. Kommers

Journal Articles

This essay sets out to describe the main features of German constitutionalism, and it concludes by drawing some comparisons with the United States. The term "constitutionalism," however, suffers from the vice of vagueness. As Gerhard Casper has written, "it is neither clearly prescriptive nor clearly descriptive; its contours are difficult to discern; its historical roots are diverse and uncertain." Any attempt to explore the contours and roots of German constitutionalism in the global sense suggested by Casper's comment would be a major undertaking extending far beyond the limits of this study. As used here the term shall be limited to …