'Federalism. Reason - Meaning - Impact' Federalism, a supreme state principle of the constitutional order (Article 79 GG), has, since its inception, been the subject matter of an immense number of expositions, both as a constitutional principle and in its individual problems. This exposition is not designed to complicate the matter further. Rather, it is about providing a deeper understanding in two ways, something that should have been done a long time ago: The first main section is about constitutional justifications of the normative content of federalism in its traditional and well-established static forms, such as majorities, equality and gradation of the constituent states. Federal legitimacy derived from democracy is above all about citizen proximity, in the rule of law it is justified as a dividing form of order, when it comes to social statehood it sees here the effective welfare state, and freedom is to be secured through the division of power. The second main section is about reinforcement effects as well as the threats of federalism for statehood in Germany.

Walter Georg Leisner studied law in Munich and Hamburg and got the first and second State Examination in Munich. He received his doctorate and habilitation degrees on the subject of 'Securing existence in public law' from the University of Hamburg and got the venia legendi for constitutional, administrative and tax law. He has been a lawyer in Munich and Berlin since 2001, since 2003 he has been a lecturer at the University of Hamburg, and at Free University of Berlin since 2012. In 2016 he was appointed Deputy Managing Director of the Chamber of Crafts for Munich and Upper Bavaria. He is co-author of Sodan's commentary on basic law, editor and co-author of various legal commentaries and author of numerous monographs and articles in a variety of journals.

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