State, society and liberty : studies in political theory and constitutional law

The essays collected in this volume were written over a period of 12 years and address crucial problems bearing on the modern state. The author portrays the state, as it has emerged in the form of political order in modern Europe and has taken shape successively as "Rechtsstaat" democratic state. The changes that the state as a form of political order has undergone as a result of the transition to democracy and the modern welfare state cannot be overlooked, nor can one ignore the fact that the problems of a developing industrial society and of an intellectual and ethical pluralism pose a challenge to the political order for which a satisfactory answer still needs to be found.

• Historical Jurispudence and the problem of the historicity of law
• the emergence of the state as a process of secularization
• origin and development of the concept of the "Rechtsstaat"
• constitutional problems and constitutional movement in the 19th century
• the German type of constitutional monarchy in the 19th century
• Lorenz von Stein as theorist of the movement of state and society towards the welfare state
• the significance of the distinction between state and society in the democratic welfare state of today
• the basic rights - theory and interpretation
• the basic right of freedom of conscience
• safeguarding liberty in relation to social power - outline of a problem.