In 2019 the post war German constitution – intended to be provisional and therefore called „Grundgesetz“ (Basic Law) – celebrated its 70th anniversary. When designing the constitution, the „fathers and mothers“ of the Grundgesetz took emphasis on the establishment of a powerful constitutional court – the „Bundesverfassungsgericht“.

From the beginning at the same time the court commited itself explicitely to judicial self-restraint, but made clear that this does not mean a weakening of its jurisdiction. And indeed, the court turned out to be a self-confident constitutional body, which over the years had a major influence on the tax system, whereby its decisions in the field of tax law had spillover effects for other fields of law, and beyond (such as policy matters).

In this conference, Prof. Steffen Lampert would like to take you on a journey to the past, looking on the court´s obvious and hidden landmark decisions whose impact went far beyond the issue on review. As the fundamental rights of the Grundgesetz stand in the tradition of Western liberal constitutions, the conference will also give the participants opportunity to identify similarities and differences to developments with the French constitutional developments.