Justiz als gesellschaftliches Über-Ich. Zur Position der Rechtsprechung in der Demokratie

With this collection of texts, Ingeborg Maus is aiming at a paradox at the heart of democracy: on the one hand, citizens place great trust in the judiciary, especially the constitutional court, with parliament usual ranking at the lower end of the trust scale. If, however, constitutional norms are broken down into vague “values” that make it possible to overturn constitutionally-compliant laws, the court turns into an opponent of popular sovereignty. The criticism of this legal practice, which can be observed at the EU level today, is supplemented by an overview of the Nazi judicial system and its methods.