Money and Markets: Essays in Honor of Leland B. Yeager

110 Jürgen G. Backhausone’s choice, freedom of exercising the profession of one’s choice, the academicprivileges of freedom of instruction and research, etc. The problem is, by the way,most serious if a particular government or some private agents suppress theexistence of a market altogether. The guarantee of freedom of access to marketsobviously includes the guarantee to have such markets established, which does notpredetermine the shape such markets take, as long as they provide for an openforum to communicate and exchange, which is what a market basically is about(Schwartze 1990).Procedural guaranteesBasic rights and procedural guarantees are equally important, since basic rightscan only be exercised if certain procedural guarantees are observed. The importanceof procedural guarantees is not reflected in the amount of space they receivein this essay, due to space limitations. Essentially, there are two types of proceduralguarantees: guarantees regulating the relationship between public bodies andguarantees regulating the relationship between public bodies and citizens.The relationship between public bodiesThe procedural principles regulating the relationships between public bodies consistof at least three groups. They include all those rules regulating the domains ofcompetence of the various public bodies with respect to each other, including theareas of cooperation, mutual consent, or hierarchical control. A second groupconsists of principles of budgeting such as the principles of timeliness, completenessof budgets, etc. A third involves principles of legislation. One is that legislationalways has to be of a general character, and that acts are invalid if they address onecase only. Another economically relevant principle involves the requirement thatlegislation which has turned out to be faulty, unjust, or seriously impractical, andthereby has turned out to be in violation of basic rights, needs to be corrected.The relationships between public bodies and citizensThe second set of procedural rules typically found in constitutions involves thequestion of how the private citizen or other legal entity relates to public bodies. Intothis category fall two sets of rules. One set again governs the separation of thedomains of competence. A typical example is the separation of church and state.But here, again, forms of cooperation, of mutual consent, or of hierarchical orderingsare clearly available. The second set of rules, generally described by theextremely comprehensive term of due process, lays down the rules of the gamebetween public bodies and private citizens or legal entities. These include informationrights, notification rights, and the right to have access to courts and bodiesof appeal in meaningful ways that go beyond merely procedural ceremonies withoutcontent, since the important benchmark is the effectiveness of these proceduresin safeguarding the six basic economic rights outlined above.