Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung

Beiträge zum deutschen Föderalismus

Materielles Abweichungsrecht der Länder und föderative Asymmetrien in der bundesdeutschen Bildungspolitik

Ursula Münch

S. 224-237

The Federalism Reform I, adopted in summer 2006, was the most extensive change of the Basic Law in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Reform has two objectives: First, to strengthen the scopes of design of both state levels and second, to allow more differentiations between the Länder. From the point of view of the supporters of competitive federalism, the aligned augmentation of asymmetries is expedient. This essay is analyzing the consequences of the Federalism Reform I on the allocation of rights and duties in the Federal German education policy. First of all, it is to determine, that the bulk of the asymmetries in the education policy before Federalism Reform was based upon the sovereignty of the Länder in cultural affairs. The Federalism Reform I is going to intensify the differences between the individual Länder in the areas of school and university. The main reason for that is the abolition of the Federal Scope Legislation for the general principels of higher education. The Länder receive with the exception of the regulation authority for university admission and university degree the legislation competence in education policy. Indeed, the Federation can decreed full regulations in these two areas, but in the future the Länder will be allowed to diverge from Federal Law. In these matters the principle Federal Law breaks Länder Law will be replaced by a lex-posterior-norm. Although the legislative room of manoeuvre of the Länder was basically expanded by the Federalism Reform I, there are no precise initiatives within the Länder parliaments. In fact, the Divergence Legislation is a novelty in the Federal State System, but, compared to the suggestions made by science, it is only an understated solution. In place of according broad conditional divergence authorisations, the Federalism Reform I has created a material divergence authorisation for close-circumscribed matters.

Zitiervorschlag für diesen Artikel:
Münch, Ursula 2008: Materielles Abweichungsrecht der Länder und föderative Asymmetrien in der bundesdeutschen Bildungspolitik, in: Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung (Hrsg.): Jahrbuch des Föderalismus 2007. Föderalismus, Subsidiarität und Regionen in Europa, Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, S. 224-237.