2026/01/01 by Lothar Michael
Social Sciences · #Law and Political Science #Political Systems and Governance #Public Administration and Political Analysis
paper · doi:10.5771/0340-1758-2026-2-233
openalex publication_date 2026/01/01 · openalex created_date 2026/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Newly elected parliaments establish their institutional capacity to act during their constituent sessions. Normally, these are purely performative debates, but they can escalate into conflicts and legal disputes that put the system’s resilience to the test. This is illustrated by examples from Thuringia, Baden-Württemberg and the German Bundestag, where disputes arose over the convening or self-convening of the new parliament, the chairing of the constituent sitting, or matters of parliamentary procedure. Various aspects of the law governing rules of procedure, parliamentary customary law and statutory provisions are suited to varying degrees to resolving the problems that arise. The preservation of parliamentary autonomy should be at the heart of efforts to safeguard the resilience of parliamentary democracy. However, this does not in any way imply a strict discontinuity in the rules of procedure. On the contrary, the continued application – at least in part or on a provisional basis – of individual rules of procedure is required under constitutional law. [ZParl, vol. 57 (2026), no. 2, pp. 233 – 255]