On the Experience of Legal Regulation of the Principle of Publicity of Local Authorities in German Law

The article examines the experience of legal regulation of the key principle of organizing the local authorities—publicity in the legal acts of Germany. The structure of the German state and Russia is a federation and this fact affects the law making activity. It is carried out by a federation, its entities and municipalities. The analysis aims at identification of the specific features which reflect the principle of publicity in regulations. Their peculiarity lies in the fact that the law of the lands bears the main burden of regulation in this area. The examples of specific rules of Bavaria testify that many of them contain elements of the principle of publicity of local authorities. In particular, a great attention is paid to the issues of civil initiatives, civil solutions and civil petitions in the Bavarian legal acts, which, according to the author, should be attributed to the basic elements of the analyzed principle of publicity. Research of the German experience has shown that existence of a legal basis for publicity enables the citizens to participate in decisions making of the municipal bodies, as well as directly make their own proposals for improving various spheres of their local life. Such approach proves that it is the principle of publicity that creates conditions for the activity of the population in their place of residence. Thus, we achieve the important objective to ensure the effectiveness of the local government.