»Deconstructing the Rhetoric of Federalism - On Doctrine in Law and Literature. Instrumental Federalism in the United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany as a Lyrical Figure of Reading«: In American and German federalism, courts assertively deploy topoi such as >state dignity< or >Bundestreu<' which are not laid down in the constitutional texts. The comparative study scrutinizes these >unwritten< doctrines as examples of activist judicial constitutionalism. The topoi revolve around anthropomorphic, >lyrical< notions of >dignity< and >fidelity<. Building on deconstruction in literary criticism, the book analyzes the force of anthropomorphic doctrine in law and literature.