Transparenz als Verfassungsprinzip

Jürgen Bröhmer attempts to explain the concept of transparency in German constitutional law and European Union law. In order to do so, he analyses the German Basic Law and the law of the European Union. Transparency is by no means a new concept, and an in-depth analysis shows that the German Basic Law contains many provisions, features and procedures whose main objective lies in the creation of some form of transparency. The comparison to European Union law, in which transparency is foremost understood as access to documents and the legislative process reveals that transparency is regarded as being able to counter-balance an existing or perceived democratic deficit. The author also deals with EU law, focusing on the existing practice and jurisprudence concerning access to documents.