Handbuch des Staatskirchenrechts der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

Die dritte Auflage des Handbuchs des Staatskirchenrechts der Bundesrepublik Deutschland behandelt die Rechtsverhältnisse der Religions- und Weltanschauungsgemeinschaften in 79 thematisch geordneten, von Experten aus Rechtswissenschaft und Rechtspraxis verfassten Beiträgen. Die gegenüber der Vorauflage (1994-1995) wiederum grundlegende Neubearbeitung nimmt die seither weiterentwickelte Gesetzgebung, Rechtsprechung und wissenschaftliche Diskussion auf, ebenso die Veränderungen der gesellschaftlichen Bedingungen, in denen das geltende Staatskirchenrecht seine Wirkung entfaltet. Der überarbeitete thematische Zuschnitt des Handbuchs und der einzelnen Beiträge berücksichtigt insbesondere die gewachsene Bedeutung der religiösen Vielfalt in Deutschland und spiegelt den fortschreitenden Einfluss der Europäischen Menschenrechtskonvention und des Rechts der Europäischen Union auf die staatskirchenrechtlichen Verhältnisse und Diskurse. So soll das Handbuch auch künftig der rechtswissenschaftlichen Erkenntnis und der rechtspraktischen Entfaltung des geltenden Staatskirchenrechts dienen.

Dietrich Pirson studied Protestant Theology, and Law in Erlangen, where he received his doctorate from the Faculty of Theology in 1953 and from the Faculty of Law in 1960. After his habilitation in 1963, he taught Public Law and Ecclesiastical Law at the universities of Marburg, Cologne and Munich until his retirement in 1997. His academic work mainly focuses on the history of ecclesiastical law and the relationship between state and church law. Wolfgang Rüfner received his doctorate in Bonn in 1962 as a student of Ulrich Scheuner and achieved habilitation in 1966 for the subjects of Constitutional and Administrative Law. He was Professor of Public Law at the Universities of Kiel (1969-1979) and of the Saarland (1979-1985), and Professor of Public Law and Canon Law at the University of Cologne. After his retirement, he headed the Institute for State-Church Law of the Dioceses of Germany in Bonn (1998-2010). Michael Germann studied law in Tübingen, Geneva and Erlangen, and passed both State Examinations in 1992 and 1994. From 1992, he worked as a research assistant at the Hans Liermann Institute for Ecclesiastical Law with Christoph Link in Erlangen, where he received his doctorate in 1999 and achieved habilitation in 2001 for the subjects of Constitutional and Administrative Law, and Ecclesiastical Law. Since 2002 he has held the chair for Public Law, State-Church Law and Ecclesiastical Law at the Faculty of Law of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. In 2015 he was also elected judge of the Constitutional Court of Saxony-Anhalt. Stefan Muckel studied law in Cologne. After the Second State Examination (1991), he worked as a research assistant with Wolfgang Rüfner in Cologne, where he received his doctorate in 1989 and achieved habilitation in 1996 for the subjects of Constitutional and Administrative Law, and Canon Law. After a temporary professorship in Kiel, he entered a professorship for Public Law, in particular Administrative Law and Administrative Theory, at the Ruhr University Bochum. Since 1998 he has been Professor of Public Law and Canon Law (since 2020: Religious Law) at the University of Cologne. Together with Manfred Baldus, he is the editor of the case law collection »Entscheidungen in Kirchensachen seit 1946 - KirchE« (Decisions in Church Matters since 1946).