When a religious community is granted the status of a public law corporation in one federal state, it must, according to previous legal practice, also undergo "secondary granting" procedures in the other federal states for unrestricted nationwide recognition of this status. The Jehovah's Witnesses have been fighting for over twenty years for nationwide granting of the corporate status, which is still denied to them in three federal states. This volume is based on an expert opinion that the authors prepared on behalf of the Jehovah's Witnesses. They evaluate the general legal practice of "initial" and "secondary granting" as well as the specific circumstances in the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses against the guarantees of the Basic Law and the European Convention on Human Rights. Their conclusion is that the granting of corporate status in one federal state already leads to the constitutional or.