Decisions of the Bundesverfassungsgericht - Federal Constitutional Court - Federal Republic of Germany

The fourth volume of decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court in the English language deals with the law of freedom of faith and of the churches. As in volumes 1 to 3, the members of the Federal Constitutional Court have again collected the key decisions on these matters, and have commissioned only slightly abridged English translations of them.

But the subjects of freedom of faith and the law of the churches are characterised not only by the particular interest taken in them by the public, but also by their variety and multi-facetedness. In the more than fifty years of its history, the Federal Constitutional Court has dealt with matters in this field as varied as church tax, the installation of a crucifix on public premises, the taking of an oath, ritual slaughter and religious education in schools.

The volume has a foreword by Professor Dr. Dres. h.c. Hans-Jürgen Papier, the President of the Federal Constitutional Court. In order to make the decisions more accessible, the appendix contains an English version of the provisions of the Basic Law and the Weimar Constitution that are essential to understanding them. Like the previous volumes, the fourth volume also contains indices of key words and statutes and an up-to-date list of all the members of the Federal Constitutional Court since 1951.