Imitation, Adaptation, and Further Development: The German Federal Constitutional Court and the Austrian Model

This paper addresses the influence of the Austrian Constitutional Court outside Austria. More particularly, it considers the impact of the regulation of the Constitutional Court in the Federal Constitutional Law of 1920 on the German constitutional order. To do so, the paper first considers the relevance of foreign models in the discussion about constitutional adjudication during the constitution-making process in the Federal Republic of Germany. After that, it analyses the main similarities and differences between the constitutional courts of Austria and Germany. The paper argues that the spread of Austrian-like constitutional courts throughout Europe is based on a complex reception of the Austrian constitutional experience, which can be described as a peculiar combination of imitation, adaptation and change.