On Böckenförde's "A Christian in the Office of Constitutional Judge" - Discussed: Religion, Law, and Democracy: Selected Writings. By Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde. Edited by Mirjam Künkler and Tine Stein. Translated by Thomas Dunlap. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. 480. $ 65.00 (cloth); Oxford Scholarship Online by subscription (digital). ISBN: 9780198818632. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198818632.001.0001
In the essay "A Christian in the Office of Constitutional Judge," Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde addresses the dilemma of the Catholic judge who is sworn to apply a secular constitution yet who confesses to a "spirituality [that] knows no separation between the personal-private and the oc...
| Published in: | Journal of law and religion |
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| Subtitles: | "Book Review Symposium: Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, Religion, Law, and Democracy" |
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
2022
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| In: |
Journal of law and religion
Year: 2022, Volume: 37, Issue: 3, Pages: 541-546 |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
B Welfare State B judicial power B judicial ethics B Abortion |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In the essay "A Christian in the Office of Constitutional Judge," Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde addresses the dilemma of the Catholic judge who is sworn to apply a secular constitution yet who confesses to a "spirituality [that] knows no separation between the personal-private and the occupational spheres." Böckenförde faced that dilemma in the 1993 abortion decision of the German Constitutional Court, which - with Böckenförde voting with the majority - held that abortion, while still punishable, allowed exceptions subject to certain conditions and counselling requirements. In this essay, the author situates that issue within the nature of judicial power and the ethical duties of the judge; the jurisdictional constraints that in other jurisdictions are available to avoid normative conflicts; and, finally, the challenges to judicial power when called upon to validate laws that go beyond the traditional punitive approach that merely prohibits and condemns, and that instead use welfare measures to actualize substantive norms taking into account social and historical realities. |
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| ISSN: | 2163-3088 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of law and religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/jlr.2022.38 |