The concept of the rule of law can be understood in two ways.On the one hand,it is a matter of binding the order of the polity to the principle of justice.And on the oth-er hand,it is concretely about ordering the polity primarily through laws,namely through par-liamentary acts.This latter point of view has determined the conflict between the old monarchs and the younger democratic forces in many European states in recent centuries.In social law,this conflict over the parliamentary law did not play a role at first.This was for two reasons.Firstly,since the 19th century,many regulations on social security had already been standard-ised by parliamentary acts,so that there was no need for a dispute over the question of parlia-mentary involvement.Secondly,those regulations that only provided for benefits,but no inter-ventions,were in any case not covered by the compulsion of parliamentary regulation.Neverthe-less,German legislation has endeavoured to standardise the entire matter as far as possible,e-ven and especially in social law.This is why § 31 SGB Ⅰ was enacted in 1975,which requires parliamentary regulation not only for state interference,but also for state social benefits.How-ever,case law has not been too strict in applying this provision and has also declared those state benefits permissible for which there is no legal basis other than the budget passed by parlia-ment.Moreover,the compulsion for a statutory regulation does not go so far that a provision on social benefits would always have to establish a judicially enforceable claim.The so-called dis-cretionary benefits are a category of benefits for which the administration decides in essential re-spects whether or not to grant them.This decision cannot be fully reviewed by the courts.Thus,although there is parliamentary control,the parliament,as legislator,can grant the administra-tion freedom over its decisions.German social law has been codified in stages since late 19th century.However,this consolidation remained incomplete.It was not until 1975 that a new at-tempt was made in the Federal Republic of Germany to codify German social law with the Social Code(Sozialgesetzbuch,SGB).However,this process has not yet been completed.In addi-tion,the order of the books of the SGB is chaotic,i.e.without a system.All the more reason for legal scholars to strive for a systematisation of social law.Today,it is usually divided into four parts.According to this,social law includes the areas of social security(Soziale Vor-sorge),social compensation(Soziale Entschädigung),social support(Soziale Förderung),and social assistance(Soziale Hilfe).Furthermore,the Federal Republic of Germany has es-tablished its own social jurisdiction to settle social law disputes.Social jurisdiction is one of five branches of jurisdiction.It has a three-tier structure and leads up to the Federal Social Court.The development of the content of social law has not yet been completed.Two significant chal-lenges that will undoubtedly lead to legislative changes in the future are demographic change and digitalisation.
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
维普
