"ReDCE núm. 42. Julio-Diciembre de 2024"
"ReDCE núm. 42. Julio-Diciembre de 2024"
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On 9 January 2025, the eminent German jurist Rainer Arnold passed away. As soon as the news was known through an email that his wife Barbara sent to many his disciples and friends around the world, expressions of pain and sadness followed. On the email list we shared in the IAC Research Group "Rule of Law and Developments in Science Technology" that he co-directed, there were many messages praising the figure of the great academic he was, while highlighting his personal qualities: his sense of humour, his honesty, his integrity, his humility, his generosity, his loyalty, his kindness, among many others. As mentioned in those messages, his death has left us with a great void and filled us with deep sorrow while making us realise how lucky we, his friends, were to have known him.
His academic career knew no boundaries as evidenced by the large number of books and articles he published in a wide variety of languages, the recognition he received from many universities and institutions, the large number of conferences and stays as a visiting professor in different continents (to speak of countries here is an understatement) and the multitude of academic networks he created or helped to create. Networks that he always oriented towards the principles of constitutionalism, the dignity of the person, fundamental rights and the rule of law. In these complicated times, the void he leaves is not only personal, because a very authoritative voice who performed a very important function of promoting and defending democratic values throughout the world is leaving.
Rainer Arnold carried out an immense task of disseminating German doctrine and jurisprudence, especially in the countries of Eastern Europe. He periodically organized conferences in very different countries that brought together jurists from universities and constitutional courts in which topics related to fundamental rights, constitutional jurisdiction and the rule of law were discussed. I remember having the opportunity to take part in the first of these, in 1993, at the University of Regensburg. It was attended by all the presidents of the constitutional courts of the new democracies of Eastern Europe. Rainer had a great influence in these countries, which did not prevent him from also developing a very important activity in other countries of Europe, particularly in Austria, Spain, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Portugal, as well as in America and Asia, from the United States and Canada to Chile and South Korea, for example.
As for his books and articles, I think it is impossible to know their number and the variety of countries in which they have been published, as well as the languages into which they have been translated or in which he has written them directly. One of his extraordinary abilities was his knowledge of languages, which allowed him to give lectures in many languages. We can roughly estimate the number of these languages that he mastered from his lectures and publications, but his modesty always made him avoid answering that question. He had some tricks to facilitate the learning of new languages that he once explained to me, but which I never managed to understand. It was simply a natural quality of him combined with a great deal of work behind it.
If one manages to follow the trail of his contributions to the constitutional and European law of our time, it will be hard to believe that a single person could have done so much in one lifetime. But his capacity for work knew no limits; he simultaneously carried out multiple activities with a methodical organization that allowed him to carry out all of them perfectly. In addition to his own contributions, he played an important role in welcoming researchers from all over the world to Regensburg (as far as I know, there are dozens of them from Spain alone), helping them to become familiar with German doctrine and the constitutional system of the Grundgesetz.
In my case, the feeling of desolation caused by the loss of one of the world's leading scholars in constitutional and public law, as well as in European and comparative law, is joined by the loss of a close friend whom I have known for more than thirty years and who is an inseparable part of my personal and academic history. My first stay in Germany was in September and October 1991, with a scholarship from the DAAD (the German Academic Exchange Service) just before obtaining the Chair of Constitutional Law in Granada, in December of that year. Rainer and Barbara welcomed my family and me in Regensburg as if we were part of their family and that is how we have always felt since then, as part of their family.
We returned to Regensburg in 1993 with a four-month grant from the Spanish government and since then for shorter periods, also in the 1990s, with two Integrated Scientific Research Actions between Spain and Germany. During our stay in Regensburg, whenever Rainer received researchers from other countries, we were invited to the dinner that Barbara organised at home. It was there that I met Fulco Lanchester, for example. I remember mentioning this on the presentation of the Scritti in honour of Fulco in Rome, in June 2022. Rainer could not be there, but he followed the interventions on the Internet and immediately sent me a WhatsApp thanking me for that mention, to which I replied thanking him and Barbara for that memory of happy times.
In December Rainer Arnold had to take part in a conference we were having at Villa Vigoni. When Christian Pielow wrote to me saying he couldn't go, I didn't worry because we were exchanging messages on WhatsApp during those days, and he was working normally. His projects were going on and in January he had at least two appointments: in Bologna, at a conference he had organised with Luca Mezzetti, and in Santiago de Compostela. Of course, he and Barbara also had an appointment in Granada for this year, although we hadn't fixed the date yet. As for his books and articles pending publication, I remember at least two, the proceedings of the conference he co-directed last year with Luca and his contribution, already in press, to Volume III of Writing Constitutions, edited by Wolfgang Babeck and Albrecht Weber.
The news of Rainer's death was given to me via WhatsApp (before I received Barbara's email) by Javier Cremades, one of his most prominent disciples, currently President of the World Jurist Association, who published an emotional tribute on YouTube as well and a first reminder on LinkedIn. Many others have followed from various universities and institutions and many more are planned for the coming months. Some of the forthcoming books in which he participated are going to be dedicated to him. There are also plans for other books to be published in tribute to Rainer Arnold. In the interventions we had at a recent conference in Madrid, Vasco Pereira, Fulco Lanchester, Carlos Vidal and I dedicated a touching tribute to him, tinged with sadness.
There will never be anyone like Rainer Arnold. That combination of powerful intelligence, intellectual curiosity, capacity for work, sympathy, generosity and humility is not easy to replicate. His death is an irreparable loss for the science of law and for the community of constitutionalists in Europe and in the world. Those of us who were fortunate enough to share with him academic projects, as well as debates and reflections on the constitutionalism of our time, now must continue his legacy. Let us hope that our future work will honour that commitment.
When I received the news of his death, I immediately thought of Barbara and his children, Andreas, Antonia, Roland and Julia. Rainer was like an older brother to me, and I can only share the pain that they are feeling now and offer them, along with all his friends and disciples, the consolation that comes from all the recognition that he is receiving and will receive for such a fruitful and full life. Rainer Arnold's life has been immensely productive in all the fields to which he has dedicated his efforts. The life of an exceptional human being for his multiple intellectual qualities and of a person full of humanity and goodness.
