Das Kompensationsprinzip

For some time now administrative law has been increasingly confronted with far-reaching efforts for reform. These efforts have been directed in particular at environmental law. In this field, the interests of both the population and the economy in playing an active part in forming the environment cause repeated conflicts with the interest of individuals and the general public in protecting the environment, and it is these opposing measures which must be reconciled. One way of coping with this conflict would be to refrain from prohibiting certain pursuits of personal liberty, even if this prohibition were justified, if the detrimental effects of this pursuit of liberty on the legal interests of a third party or on the public interest could be offset adequately. Andreas Voßkuhle attempts to reveal the many facets contained in the paradigmatic potential of the concept of compensation. He gives a theoretical basis for this and makes it part of a general theory of compensation.