Implementation of Constitutional Court Decisions

This project has the objective to explain if, when and why Constitutional Court decisions are implemented by the legislature. The Constitutional Court has a direct influence on policies only if decisions are implemented by the legislature or the government. Thus, the degree of implementation is indicative of the political influence of the court. While most of the decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court formally have the force of a law, there are numerous examples in which the implementation of the decisions is delayed, only partially implemented or even not implemented at all. A systematic overview of the degree of implementation does not yet exist. The project will provide such an overview and explain to which degree decisions are implemented. It leverages an existing database of decisions of the German Federal Constitutional Court and combines it with new information about the legislative processes as a reaction to those decisions.