Der Verfassungsstaat in der Weltgesellschaft

International cooperation and the opening of the nation states have led to a fundamental change in the concept and the reality of those modern states which are governed by a constitution. The abolishment of boundaries in the international economy and European integration have changed the distinctions made by the national constitutional systems and the priorities they set. Fundamental rights and democracy, national borders and the relationship between politics and law will have to be reconsidered. In these articles, the author advocates maintaining the constitutional commitments, in a different form, and asking for something similar on a European level. Examining the continuing development of the European Union, Udo Di Fabio suggests a democracy to be established at several different levels and a union of open states, a union which however does not aim at becoming a state itself.