planpolitik at the Higher Regional Court – and not as defendants: at the Higher Regional Courts in Cologne and Düsseldorf, we introduced the leaders of North Rhine-Westphalia’s law study groups to the new workshop materials entitled ‘Why the Rule of Law?’. We developed this format on behalf of the Ministry of Justice of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Behind the law study groups lies an initiative that has made a lasting impression on us: judges, solicitors and other legal professionals spend twelve double lessons at schools alongside their main jobs, teaching the basics of the German legal system. Young people thus learn about the rule of law from the very people who practise it on a daily basis.

Our task was to expand this programme to include a specific focus: not merely explaining the rule of law as a legal principle, but making it a tangible experience. After all, trust in the rule of law arises from knowledge, but above all from an understanding of what it means for one’s own everyday life. The result is the modular workshop ‘What is the rule of law for?’, comprising five modules and an additional module: From a playful introduction via a ‘terminology bingo’ and the ‘construction site’ – where participants identify the essential elements of the rule of law – through case studies and a talk show on areas of tension within the rule of law such as ‘dumpster diving’ or ‘facial recognition in stadiums’, right up to a positioning game.

The supplementary module is a training session in argumentation designed to help participants actively champion the rule of law and counter slogans that undermine it. Three different formats allow the facilitators to adapt the workshop to their respective groups.

In terms of content, the project presented us with an exciting challenge. A strictly legal topic is not our usual focus, yet the overlaps with fundamental political questions are obvious: where does the rule of law protect minorities from the majority? How are the principles of the rule of law and democracy interlinked, and where do they differ in emphasis? It was precisely this intersection between law and political education that needed to be carefully worked out from a didactic perspective, without watering down the legal substance or obscuring the political dimension.

The training sessions with the working group leaders were a highlight of the project for us. We encountered committed groups with a keen interest in teaching methodology and a wealth of practical experience from the school setting. The question of one’s own stance as a teacher was the subject of particularly intense discussion: Those who teach law must not influence students’ opinion-forming, but neither can nor should they remain neutral when it comes to defending the fundamental values of democracy and the rule of law. Navigating this tension and turning it into a productive force is a task with which we are well acquainted from political education, and it was enriching to explore it with practitioners from the judiciary.

From the 2026/27 school year onwards, the rule of law module is to be introduced for the first time in the law study groups in North Rhine-Westphalia, following an initial pilot phase.