Economic Public Law (Second Edition, 2003)

Author: Ute Schlie?er (Germany)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Economic public law is an increasingly important component of public law, consisting of a large number of legal norms scattered across different legal systems. Due to the lack of a unified code, economic public law exhibits strong fragmentation, which also reflects the division of labor in the economic life of Federal Germany. Economic public law shares many overlaps and intersections with other independent branches of law, such as environmental law or competition law. However, in educational and examination regulations as well as in practice, economic public law is regarded as a separate legal branch (eigenes Rechtsgebiet) under special administrative law. Nevertheless, there is controversy over the detailed composition and precise definition of economic public law, with the difficulty lying in clearly distinguishing it and systematizing it. Different perspectives and the intricate interplay of legal branches exacerbate this challenge, as economic public law encompasses various legal branches, each carrying distinct state regulatory objectives. The interrelationships among the relevant legal branches shown in the figure below serve as the starting point and basis for this book's introduction and elaboration on economic public law. The broader concept is the generally accepted notion of economic law (wirtschaftsrecht), referring to the sum of all legal norms of significant importance to the economic life. The concept of economic law should not be confused with the "economic law" mentioned in the Basic Law. As the author of a German textbook, it is a great honor to see my work translated into Chinese and introduced to one of the world's largest economies. China is currently undergoing an economic transformation, and to coordinate the relationship between the market economy and the public interest, state regulation is necessary. For this reason, there is an urgent need to develop a legally tested framework to effectively regulate different economic sectors, such as traditional handicrafts or newly emerging telecommunications industries. The author firmly believes that a well-developed economic public law is the key to the success of the market economy. This book is a summary of the author's experience in teaching, researching, and practicing economic public law. It concisely illustrates the complex relationships between different laws. At the same time, the book also focuses on the provisions of EU law, as in the era of globalization, it is impossible to understand economic public law without a national and international perspective. The author hopes that Chinese readers can gain a general understanding of the economic public law systems of the EU and Germany through this book.