general freedom of action

Which translation, when

Why

The general freedom of action translates as allgemeine Handlungsfreiheit, and the pair is stable; the work of the entry is the architecture around it. Since Elfes the constitutional court reads the free development of personality in Art. 2 Abs. 1 GG widely: protected is jedes Tun und Lassen, every human activity, against the narrower Persönlichkeitskern reading. The width is paid for at the limitation stage, the Schrankentrias of the rights of others, the verfassungsmäßige Ordnung and the Sittengesetz, and the court defines the verfassungsmäßige Ordnung as the entirety of norms in formal and material accord with the constitution, which turns the clause into a simple statutory reservation: almost any constitutional statute can limit the right, and an unconstitutional one cannot. Two boundary lines carry the translation weight. First, the internal split of the constitution: verfassungsmäßige Ordnung means this widest thing in Art. 2 Abs. 1 GG and something far narrower in Art. 9 Abs. 2 GG, the same words with different content, so a rendering that treats the phrase as one constant levels a distinction the Grundgesetz itself draws. Second, the neighbour from the same sentence: in conjunction with Art. 1 Abs. 1 GG the court has built the allgemeines Persönlichkeitsrecht, the distinct personality right of privacy, reputation and self-presentation. English texts speak of the free development of personality for both, and a translation that merges the catch-all Handlungsfreiheit into the Persönlichkeitsrecht, or the reverse, collapses two guarantees with different reach and different case law. The function matters too: as Auffanggrundrecht the right is subsidiary to the special freedoms and catches, as a jedermann right, the foreign national whom the Deutschen-Grundrechte leave out. So the safe rendering is allgemeine Handlungsfreiheit, with the Persönlichkeitsrecht named separately where the source means it.

Typical mistakes

• Since Elfes the right protects every doing and forbearing, so reading it as a mere personality core understates the catch-all.
• The verfassungsmäßige Ordnung of Art. 2 Abs. 1 GG is the whole constitutional legal order, far wider than the same phrase in Art. 9 Abs. 2 GG, so one constant rendering levels a split the Grundgesetz draws itself.
• The allgemeines Persönlichkeitsrecht from Art. 2 Abs. 1 in conjunction with Art. 1 Abs. 1 GG is a distinct, narrower right, so freedom of action and personality right must not be merged.

What matters

A fundamental-rights passage on conduct no special freedom covers: the translation should use allgemeine Handlungsfreiheit, keep the Schrankentrias with the wide verfassungsmäßige Ordnung, and name the allgemeines Persönlichkeitsrecht separately where privacy or self-presentation is meant.

Examples