Parliamentary control and separation of powers in the ruling of the federal constitutional court

The constitutional right of parliament to request information from the government is a defining part of the system of checks and balances within the separation of powers between the executive and the legislative branch. Most importantly, the scope of parliamentary rights to be informed about executive action determines to what extent the government can be held accountable by the parliament. Against this backdrop, the contribution analyses how the German Federal Constitutional Court in its case-law on parliamentary rights to information construes the separation of powers between the German Federal Parliament and the German Federal Government. Especially focusing on the role of the parliamentary minority, it develops a critical account of the Court’s concept of parliamentary control: As a result of partially equating parliamentary knowledge and parliamentary control, the Court over-extensively restricts the publicity of governance and of the reasoning for executive action. The contribution argues that parliamentary rights to information, as exercised by the opposition, generally do not lead to undue inferences with the government, but establish a discursive relation that forms a desired part of parliamentary government.