Die große Lehre der Geschichte

Über neuere Editionen zur Verfassungsgeschichte

Abstract

In the course of the past three years no less than seven works have been added to the syntheses of European and German constitutional history which were published around the millennium. These new works include three one-volume editions intended for the use of colleges, two multivolume editions in print and in microfiche form, and two compact discs. Two larger projects document German and European constitutional texts of the »long« 19th century; one of these projects plans to expand to the point of offering a complete edition of the constitutions of the modern world. This article analyses the criteria for the inclusion of the different constitutions, their presentation, the comments and the indices. It looks at the respective scholarly value of the various editions and it touches on the question of the editing format. In addition the reasons behind this significant upsurge in editions of constitutions are discussed.