Die Methoden der Rechtsvergleichung im öffentlichen Recht als richterliches Instrument der Interpretation von nationalem Recht

Comparative Law has long been the sole domain of civil law. Peter Haeberle’s dedicated plea to incorporate comparative law as “the fifth method of interpretation” in the canon of the historically recognized four methods of interpretation, has brought comparative law into the focus of the field of public law. In particular, the case-law, namely the one of the Federal Constitutional Court, is increasingly using arguments from foreign law to interpret its national constitutional law. Despite this growing importance of comparative law for the practice of public law and the related interest in this topic, a thorough assessment of comparative public-case-law, namely the case law of the German Federal Constitutional Court, was missing so far. This study tries to close this gap by systematically evaluating comparative references and placing them in the larger context of the general methodological discussion.