I. Introduction On 18 December 2002, one of the major legislative projects of the Schröder Government during its first term of office from 1998 to 2002 failed when the Federal Constitutional Court delivered its judgement in the Immigration Act case.(**) In a split decision, the Court declared the new Immigration Act, the "Gesetz zur Steuerung und Begrenzung der Zuwanderung" (Act on the Management and Limitation of Immigration) void for formal reasons: It found that the Act did not receive a valid majority vote in the Bundesrat, the chamber of the 16 German states ( Länder) that form the Republic. The Court did not have to deal with any questions related to the content of the Act. It discussed only the constitutionality of the legislative procedure. The new Immigration Act was the result of a long-term legislative project. A "Commission on Immigration" consisting of delegates from various interest groups and politicians from all parties represented in the Bundestag was set up by the Federal Government in 1999. Two years later, it delivered a 326-page report on possible future concepts of immigration law, refugee law, and the law on persons seeking resettlement in Germany (the so-called "Spätaussiedler", persons of German origin living in Russia or other former USSR countries (1) ). The Commission's proposals (2) became the blueprint for the draft Immigration Act, which for the first time in German post-war history welcomed and promoted active immigration. The report of the Commission on Immigration, lead by Rita Süssmuth, a high-ranking Christian Democrat and former President of the Bundestag, was welcomed by many important social groups such as the unions, the federation of employers and the churches. However, the opposition CDU and CSU parties opposed quite a few parts of the legislative proposals...