República Federal de Alemania. Estatuto del Diputado

Abstract

In early 1977, almost thirty years after the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany 81949), its Parliament passed a lengthy and full-detailed Act on the “Legal status of Members of the Federal German Parliament”, i.e. of members of the Deutscher Bundestag, a statute which after many partial amendments is still in force in its original content. It is an almost unique initiative in comparative law, as none of the firmly established democratic States has, in addition to the Constitution and to the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure (or Standing Orders), a specifically enactment governing all the rights and duties of the people’s elected representatives, in other words what we have chosen to translate as parliamentarians’ legal status. Moreover, let us note that no provision of the Fundamental Act of 1949 contains a direct and concrete recommendation (let alone an order) for the making of such a set of rules. Another noteworthy point is that the Act was passed “with the Federal Council´s (Bundesrat) consent”, that is to say, with the agreement of the Chamber made up of government members of all the regional States (Länder), although the subject-matter is not one of those for which the Constitution requires said consent.