Der Grundrechtsföderalismus der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika

The applicability of the Charta of Fundamental Rights to EU member states is one of the big construction sites of EU federalism. The thesis casts a glance across the Atlantic and examines fundamental rights protection in US federalism, which reveals remarkable similarities, and yet major differences compared to the EU and the applicability of the Charta. First, it examines the case law of the U.S. Supreme Court that has made individual rights of the Federal Constitution widely applicable to the States. It has thus led to a unitarian protection of fundamental rights. In a second step, the thesis looks to State courts and their (re-)federalization of fundamental rights protection. State courts have interpreted their own constitutions’ rights to partially grant more protection than the Federal Constitution. The thesis is the result of research conducted at the University of California, Berkeley.