THE JUDICIALIZATION OF POLITICS IN GERMANY

Judicialization of politics means that more and more political questio ns are decided by courts and thereby political alternatives are reduce d. In Germany it is the Federal Constitutional Court that is most invo lved in this process of judicialization. Members of Parliament contrib ute to this development by litigating far too often a lawsuit before t he Constitutional Court and by carrying too far the consideration of l egal arguments in legislation. Judges of the Constitutional Court cont ribute to the judicialization by sometimes exceeding their competences and by becoming involved in power politics. As the Constitutional Cou rt has only. a limited democratic legitimacy, it is detrimental to a d emocracy when such a court frequently decides on policy-making.