Der »German Approach«

German constitutional scholarship is still influenced by the systematic »scientific law« tradition inherited from Friedrich Carl von Savigny. Analysing its peculiarities, Christoph Schönberger compares German scholarship to the completely different path taken in France following the French Revolution. He shows how the particular institutional shortcomings of a »latecomer« nation were offset by a prolific scholarship whose role has later been taken over by the Federal Constitutional Court. Today's challenges of Europeanisation and internationalisation call for a renewal of the »German approach«.