Local Government in Germany Guest Lecture Series
Lecture one: Local Government in a Comparative Perspective, Germany
Germany is a federal state consisting of 16 constituent states. The individual states are usually subdivided into counties and municipalities. Larger municipalities (cities) are ‘‘county-free’’. Counties and municipalities form the local governments. According to the German constitution – the Basic Law – the municipalities have the right to regulate all local affairs on their own responsibility within the limits prescribed by the laws. The scope of their responsibility is therefore regularly of legal and political interest. In any case, the municipalities play an
important role in the everyday life of the citizens.
The lecture deals in particular with: Federalism in Germany and local governments in the state structure; history of local government in Germany; legal status, tasks, elections, state supervision and finances of local governments in Germany.
| Duration | 45 minutes (including interactive discussion) |
| Time | 3:00 PM - 3:45 PM |
| Venue | UTS City Campus and online, via a live video link |
| Cost | Free |
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Lecture two: Participation and Large-Scale Projects in Germany
To meet major challenges such as climate change, large-scale transport and renewable energy projects are needed worldwide. However, large-scale projects raise a number of legal, political and social questions. The lecture deals with the participation of citizens in large-scale projects in Germany. This is divided into participation in administrative procedures based on the rule of law and democratically based citizens’ petitions and referendums.
The lecture deals in particular with: Legal framework, procedures and political and social sciences analysis of protests and participation in Germany; differences and similarities between protests and participation in urban and rural areas; outlook for a more satisfactory handling of large-scale projects
| Duration | 45 minutes (including interactive discussion) |
| Time | 3:00 PM - 3:45 PM |
| Venue | UTS City Campus and online, via a live video link |
| Cost | Free |
CONTACT US FOR FUTURE EVENTS
Delivery style
The lectures will be delivered as interactive face-to-face sessions at our UTS City Campus. For those in regional centres, the lectures will be made available via a live Zoom video link. Participants will be sent the relevant room or Zoom details after registering for the event and listing their preferred delivery mode.
About the presenter
Patrick Zimmermann is a research assistant and doctoral student at the Chair of Public Law, Business Administrative Law, Environmental and Social Security Law and the Research Institute for Procurement Law and Administrative Cooperation (Prof. Dr. Martin Burgi) at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
In August 2023, he was invited to join the University of Technology Sydney as a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy and Governance. In his role as Visting Fellow, Patrick is conducting research as part of the European Union’s ‘Local Government and the Changing Urban-Rural Interplay’ project. His general research interests include constitutional and administrative law, in particular public economic law, state aid law, public procurement law, health law and environmental law. Patrick’s recent research concerns the question of a economical and legally secure procurement in the construction and defense sectors.
