Grundrechte als Prinzipien

Liberty rights adhere to the structure of rights that are amenable to limitation and subject to proportionality. Whether this also applies to positive rights or to equality rights has remained unclear and contested for quite some time. This monograph proposes a universal structural model of constitutional rights as limitable rights which focuses on proportionality in the form of the prohibition of excessive means, the prohibition of insufficient means, or in the form that is specific for equality rights. The third edition of this book has been thoroughly revised with an eye to recent developments in principle theory and in the doctrine of constitutional rights. Two aspects deserve particular mention: First, a reconstruction of different kinds of discretion and of the criteria for determining the extent of discretion is attempted; second, the issue of whether and to what extent moral considerations can and must be considered in assessing claims stemming from constitutional rights is discussed.