Der Klimabeschluss des Bundesverfassungsgerichts – eine Dekonstruktion

The Federal Constitutional Court's Climate Change Decision - A Deconstruction The climate change decision of March 2021 is widely considered one of the most significant judgements of the Federal Constitutional Court. However, assessments of its content and consequences diverge among legal scholars. This article deconstructs the decision from the perspective of legal scholarship interested in the knowledge of the applicable law and its adequate dogmatic preparation. Step by step, it analyses the line of argument of the Federal Constitutional Court concerning fundamental rights obligations to protect, the constitutional climate protection requirement as well as the ‚interference-like pre-effect‘ (eingriffsähnliche Vorwirkung) of provisions of the Climate Protection Act and the fundamental rights function of ‚intertemporal safeguarding of freedom‘ (intertemporale Freiheitssicherung). This line of argument is not convincing at all. The climate change decision may well be understood as a response to the need for a common understanding of climate change and the problem of cooperation in climate protection. However, the negative judgement of legal scholarship oriented towards the applicable law remains unaffected