Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- The Gender of Constitutional Jurisprudence
- Introduction: Toward a Feminist Constitutional Agenda
- 1 Speaking into a Silence: Embedded Constitutionalism, the Australian Constitution, and the Rights of Women
- 2 Using the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to Constitute Women
- 3 Emancipatory Equality: Gender Jurisprudence under the Colombian Constitution
- 4 Gender Equality and International Human Rights in Costa Rican Constitutional Jurisprudence
- 5 Constituting Women: The French Ways
- 6 Gender in the German Constitution
- 7 India, Sex Equality, and Constitutional Law
- 8 Constitutional Transformation, Gender Equality, and Religious/National Conflict in Israel: Tentative Progress through the Obstacle Course
- 9 “No Nation Can Be Free When One Half of It Is Enslaved”: Constitutional Equality for Women in South Africa
- 10 Engendering the Constitution: The Spanish Experience
- 11 Gender Equality from a Constitutional Perspective: The Case of Turkey
- 12 Gender and the United States Constitution: Equal Protection, Privacy, and Federalism
- Index
- References
6 - Gender in the German Constitution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- The Gender of Constitutional Jurisprudence
- Introduction: Toward a Feminist Constitutional Agenda
- 1 Speaking into a Silence: Embedded Constitutionalism, the Australian Constitution, and the Rights of Women
- 2 Using the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to Constitute Women
- 3 Emancipatory Equality: Gender Jurisprudence under the Colombian Constitution
- 4 Gender Equality and International Human Rights in Costa Rican Constitutional Jurisprudence
- 5 Constituting Women: The French Ways
- 6 Gender in the German Constitution
- 7 India, Sex Equality, and Constitutional Law
- 8 Constitutional Transformation, Gender Equality, and Religious/National Conflict in Israel: Tentative Progress through the Obstacle Course
- 9 “No Nation Can Be Free When One Half of It Is Enslaved”: Constitutional Equality for Women in South Africa
- 10 Engendering the Constitution: The Spanish Experience
- 11 Gender Equality from a Constitutional Perspective: The Case of Turkey
- 12 Gender and the United States Constitution: Equal Protection, Privacy, and Federalism
- Index
- References
Summary
The German “Basic Law,” as the Federal Constitution is called, dates from May 23, 1949. It was enacted in the western part of Germany, after Germany had lost World War II, and was strongly influenced by the experience of the Nazi Regime. The Basic Law, therefore, contains a strongly worded list of fundamental rights. Whereas the Basic Law was designed as a temporary constitution until Germany would be united again, unification did not occur in the manner expected. So, instead of designing an entirely new constitution, the Eastern Part adopted the Basic Law with the proviso that it should be amended in some respects (Article 5 of the Unification Treaty). This led to a Constitutional Amendment in 1994, which affected the Article dealing with gender equality (as will be explained later).
Sixteen states comprise the Federal Republic of Germany. Constitutions exist, therefore, on the state level as well as on the federal level. Not all state constitutions contain a fully-fledged fundamental rights catalogue. Many of those that do, however, include some form of gender equality clause. In particular, the constitutions of the “neue Länder,” the states reestablished on the territory of former East Germany, contain constitutional guarantees obliging the state to further real equality between men and women. However, the state constitutions have not played an important role in this area so far.
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- Information
- The Gender of Constitutional Jurisprudence , pp. 149 - 173Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004