Privatisierung

Jörn Axel Kämmerer's focus on privatization shows it to be a legal instrument that has contributed to significant changes in the state's relations to society. Privatization in Germany affects sectors such as railway services, telecommunications and road construction, and many of the rules enacted can be traced back to provisions of European Community law. The author of this study establishes that, contrary to popular belief, privatization does not make the state 'vanish', it changes it into a guarantor and a regulator, implying a lesser degree of protection accorded by fundamental rights. Still present, but weakened and not necessarily slender at all, the state will have difficulties in fulfilling the task of efficiently regulating society and at the same time maintaining its sovereign authority over it.