Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde (1930-2019) was one of Europe's foremost legal scholars and political thinkers. As a scholar of constitutional law and a judge on Germany's Federal Constitutional Court (1983-1996), Böckenförde was a major contributor to contemporary debates in legal and political theory, to the conceptual framework of the modern state and its presuppositions, and to contested political issues such as the constitutional status of the state of emergency, citizenship rights, bioethical politics, and the challenges of European integration. His writings have shaped not only academic but also wider public debates from the 1950s to the present, to an extent that few European scholars can match. As a federal constitutional judge and holder of a trusted public office, Böckenförde has influenced the way academics and citizens think about law and politics. During his tenure on the Court, several path-breaking decisions for the Federal Republic of Germany were handed down, including decisions on the deployment of missiles, the law on political parties, the regulation of abortion, and the process of European integration. This second volume in the first representative edition in English of Böckenförde's writings brings together his essays on religion, law, and democracy. The volume is organized in five sections: I. the Catholic Church and Political Order; II. State and Secularity; III. the Theology of Law and its Relation to Political Theory; IV. Norms and the Principle of Human Dignity; and V. Excerpts from a biographical interview. Sections I, II, III, and IV are preceded by an editors' introduction to the articles as well as running editorial commentary to the work. "The subject matter is interesting and provides an insight into middle European and South German politics and the religious influence on legal life." -- David Pickup, The Gazette "This reasoned collection offers a fresh and comprehensive picture of Böckenförde's works on law, religion, and democracy. Page after page, the reader discovers the genuine richness and complexity of the philosophical, historical, and constitutional thinking of one of the outstanding intellectuals of the 20th century." -- Marta Cartabia , President of the Italian Constitutional Court "Böckenförde was a major legal and political thinker who contributed in an important way to the building of post-war German democracy. He still has lessons to teach us all." -- Charles Taylor , Professor Emeritus, McGill University "Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde was once called an intellectual giant with 'three souls'. He was a liberal Catholic deeply devoted to God and the church's Vatican II reforms; a high court judge sworn to uphold the constitution and the Rechtsstaat ; and a social democrat bent on fostering greater liberty, justice, and welfare for all. All three souls ― and a big mind and heart, too ― grapple profoundly in these essays with fundamental questions of abortion, bioethics, religious freedom, human dignity, and much more." -- John Witte, Jr. , Director, Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University The second volume of the definitive English edition of Ernst-Wolfgang Bockenforde's work, offering Anglophone scholars an introduction to the political and constitutional thought of one of Germany's leading contemporary theorists. Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde , Professor Emeritus of Public Law, University of Freiburg; former Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde was a Professor of Public Law at the University of Freiburg. He served as a judge at the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (1983-1996) and made pathbreaking contributions in the fields of constitutional history, constitutional dogmatics, philosophy of law, the status of natural law and canon law in modern democracy, and to democratic theory.