Volume 20, Issue 1

This article presents a model which is used to define empirically the effects of laws. With the help of this model the effects of the law on the addressees can be analyzed systematically and watched in the process on the basis of their norms, moral concepts and knowledge, on the basis of their scope of action and also on the basis of their motivational and cognitive dispositions. So it is possible to make differentiated statements on the facts why addressees of the law act according to the legal norms or why the legal norm is ineffective and which kinds of societal effects the law produces. After introducing the elements of the concept of the effective model two empirically defined legal effects of the „Pflegeversicherung“ are explained to illustrate the model.

During the recent twenty years, the notion of ecological prevention has become a core Orientation for the environmental policies of both, the state and the management of big enterprises. Nowadays it is difficult to find an enterprise which would not claim preventive environmental protection to be a component part of its policy. This paper focusses an the environmental liability act and thereby discusses the relationship between state and private environmental protection. Considering environmental liability, the aspect of prevention, rather than the one of compensation, will direct the following discussion. It is assumed that ecological prevention depends an whether specific economic and cognitive pre-conditions are fulfilled. As soon as they are not fulfilled, environmental liability reveals striking weaknesses which can be observed in cases of accidental (sudden) damages as well as gradually developing damages. The former can be explained by a lack of economic conditions which is a consequence of the actually carried out risk-transfer to insurance companies. The latter are due to the lack of cognitive pre-conditions, i. e. the risks are simply unknown . Furthermore, the paper deals with the distinction between known, unknown and hypothetical risks, which is crucial for our discussion. Last not least, it outlines the problem of risks which arise as a consequence of risk-prevention- measures enacted by economic or political organizations.

The aim of this article is to analyse the functioning of procedural law as it is increasingly used by the European Union to steer environmental policy. Whereas the analysis is based an the theoretical debate that has evolved around the question of whether it is possible to steer modern differentiated societies, and to what extent the State ans specifically the law can fulfil steering functions, the analysis by way of example draws upon the implimentation of the Environmental Audit and Management Scheme (EMAS) and its application in industrial sites in Germany. Starting from a survey including all sites registered according to EMAS up to the end of 1997, the presentation of two “best cases” focuses an elaborating the changes (internal and external) which turn out to be result of EMAS. The findings of our analysis are that participation in EMAS may - at least in innovative companies with some readiness for internalising external costs - result in a situation in which environmental issues in general gain credibility, first measures for really improving the environmental performance of the site are being taken, and an external obligation is at least to some extent replaced by an institutionalised “inner compulsion” to environmental improvement.

During the last few years representatives both of the political and the social field have demanded for „Gesetzesfolgenabschätzung“ (the process of estimation of the consequences of legislation).The demands have been relating to all of the three moduluses of Gesetzesfolgenabschätzung: the prospective and the concomitant as well as the retrospective modulus. So far, very few practical experiences of application, especially concerning the prospective modulus, could have been gathered, though. For the first time, the prospective modulus has in practice been applied to the forest law of Rhineland-Palatinate. Additionally, a concomitant Gesetzesfolgenabschätzung has been implemented in this case. It can be stated that - adequately used - Gesetzesfolgenabschätzung can lead to a considerable advantage in obtaining information for the representatives in the political field. The following article will describe the course of procedure and comment on some results of the practical Gesetzesfolgenabschätzung concerning the forest law of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The structures of social systems - following one of the central prerequisites of systems-theory - are structures of expectations. However, when expectations are not met (e.g. the social systems of law and politics not being able to prevent and pursue criminal acts effectively), social systems and their environment can be „irritated“ heavily - trust as a mechanism to reduce complexity may even be damaged. Using a special field of delinquency (i.e. extortion e.g. of protection money) and a survey of potential and actual victims (i.e. restaurateurs of different ethnic origin; N=7.882) a special social situation, putting plenty of pressure on trust, is analysed with the methods of empirical social science research. As a result, the current social systems of law and politics unexpectedly seem to be stable even under extreme pressure as far as the basic mechanism of trust is concerned.

American movies have influenced the German audiences’ thinking about law and the administration of justice. Even law movies with a story situated in Germany follow the different American patterns. It is depicted, how courtroom dramas can be used in university classes. After this, the article deals with the special traits of the American criminal trial causing this attraction. Finally, a systems theoretical explanation is developed for the reception of legal topics in the film. For this purpose Niklas Luhmann’s theory is introduced.