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Umweltrecht und Unternehmerfreiheit

Paul Kirchhof


Humankind is an integral part of the natural cosmos, contending for the mastery of and control over nature. As individual subjects, human beings are endowed with self-determination, which entitles them zo exercise rights but also threatens nature and, thus, the very foundations of human existence. Therefore, the law has to balance economic freedom and ecology. In principle, economic activities are free. State intervention is an exception that has to be justified. A free society puts trust in the ability of its members as beings endowed with reason not to destroy the natural foundations, which sustain us all. The legal order realises its legal subjects as rational entities both bound by nature and responsible for nature. Environmental law not only defines unavailable common goods but also the very substance of freedom. Against this background, free enterprise and ecology have to be interpreted holistically as integral parts of a society striving for freedom, rationality, and knowledge.

Prof. Dr. Dres. h.c. Paul Kirchhof ist Bundesverfassungsrichter a.D. und Seniorprofessor distinctus der Universität Heidelberg.

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