Abstract
Seventy years ago, shortly after the Second World War, the newly re-established Public Law Quarterly (AöR) – Germany's most renowned public law journal, then as now – started exploring a new publishing format. Unlike most (maybe all) law journals at the time, the Quarterly began inviting "short, substantial, and trenchant 'marginals' on current issues and developments", in order to let legal scholars "comment critically on current affairs in state and administration". This format, conducive as it was to informal quips, humorous commentary or even biting satire, was later taken up by other law journals. In the Public Law Quarterly, it bore plenty of fruit as early as 1948 and in subsequent years: A total of 76 such "marginals" were penned by 40 different authors – amongst them some of the most renowned public law scholars of later years, including Hans Peter Ipsen, Otto Bachof, Josef Isensee, Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, and Günter Dürig. Until, in 1972, the "experiment" ended as suddenly as silently, after already suffering an earlier hiatus of nearly ten years. The present review traces the history of the Public Law Quarterly's "marginals", and surveys each of them with an eye to current issues in public law. Much can be learned about the past and present of the German post-war polity, and timeless wisdoms recovered from the treasure trove of bygone miscellany.
