Legal Procedure and Participation by the Public: Germany’s 1990 Genetic Engineering Act

In German law, administrative procedures concerning high‐risk technologies generally involve an element of public participation. This form of “participation for all” often causes a great deal of contention. A well‐known example of this development can be found in the Genetic Engineering Act of 1990, which provided for citizen participation at a public hearing ( Ero¨rterungstermin ) whenever someone applied for a license to release genetically modified plants. Four years later, as a consequence of the experience gained while implementing the law, this provision was removed in the 1994 First Amendment to the Genetic Engineering Law ( Bundestag‐Drucksache 720/93). Decisions on deliberate release are now made on the basis of written submissions. This article will argue that while there had certainly been good theoretical reasons for implementing a direct, oral form of public participation, in this case failure was predestined by the facts of the situation. In conclusion, the article makes a special plea for continued empirical research into the circumstances of the hearings, in order to explore better the possibilities for implementing functional equivalents to this form of public participation.