Verfassung: Geschichte, Gegenwart, Zukunft

In Dieter Grimm’s work, the concepts of ‘constitution’ and ‘constitutionalism’ are recurring themes throughout his entire scholarly life. In the years Grimm spent at the University of Bielefeld, his work focused on the emergence of constitutions in 18th and 19th century Europe and the United States, and on the history and meaning of the concept of constitution. Following that period, interpreting German Basic Law (Grundgesetz), comparative constitutional work, the legal bases of European integration and the constitutional quality of primary EU law became key areas of Grimm’s research. More recently, the future of the European Union has been a key subject in his writings. Dieter Grimm’s work on these topics, including some relevant contexts such as the political movements of the 1970s and the academic culture in Bielefeld, was discussed at an interdisciplinary colloquium held at the Bielefeld Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (ZiF) in July 2017.