Der grundrechtliche Gewährleistungsgehalt

Benjamin Rusteberg deals with the current discussion surrounding the scope of protection in fundamental rights and the question of whether this scope should be wide or narrow. In the final analysis, the issue is how the provisions pertaining to fundamental rights in the German Basic Law, which are abstract, can be applied to the practical circumstances of life. The author proposes the theory that - in comparison to previous methods of weighing all the pros and cons - an abstract definition of the scope of protection, which is based on a potential endangerment from the lawmaker's viewpoint, is preferable. The author thus provides the reader with a perspective on fundamental rights which differs from the current one.