State constitutional courts and judicialization of politics in the German Länder

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Werner Reutter
• Subject Area: Political Science ; Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2017 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 397123419

With this renewal proposal, the research project entitled "State constitutional courts and judicialization of politics in the German Länder" is to be expanded, and brought to a conclusion. In the initial project, which will end in March 2021, the extent and causes of judicialization of politics in the German states have been investigated assuming that institutional and personal factors are causal for explaining constitutional adjudication and the degree of judicialization in the German states. In the renewal project, the previously ignored processes of judicial deliberation and decision-making are to be examined building on the data collected and the conclusions obtained so far. Overall, the project will forward the research on subnational constitutional adjudication in three respects. Empirically, it will provide a comprehensive set of data for the analysis of German state constitutional courts. Methodologically, the project enters new territory through the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Theoretically, it will allow to reviewing widespread assumptions about the preconditions, genesis, and possible consequences of deliberation and decision-making in German state constitutional courts.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants