Peter Häberle Der Kleinstaat als Variante des Verfassungsstaates Summary 1. Consriturional 
science as 
the science of 
the "consriturional State" has, for many reasons, par- ricular functions and chances 
regarding small states. It is its 
duty to study the small 
State in the whole depth of 
its appearance and to 
integrate it in the coordinate system of the consriturional State as 
this has 
been possible with the developing countries due to the discovery of their many crearive contriburions to 
the worldwide process of text-stage development. A 
consriturional science that would 
simply ignore the small State 
would be as incomplete 
as if it left 
out federa- lism, the 
regions or the 
developing countries. The small State 
offers crearive contriburions to the doctrine of the consriturional State, especially 
in "the Europe of regions". In 
todays world, which is continuously moving together, the 
"big states" are 
becoming smaller and the 
small states bigger. 2. The term "small State" can not be forced into the Procrustean bed of fixed numbers and data. Rather, it should 
be thought as a Scale open üpwards and downwards ("dwarf states"), in the spirit of an integral, culturologically oriented concepL The material moves to the foregro- und: The thinking in schemes of power and size, in schemes of finished and accepted terms, in schemes of "elements" of presented statehood fixed in quantity and space is replaced by mate­ rial 
criteria such as 
the Constitution, 
justice and living 
subjects like 
the Citizen and 
the human being. 3. Discemable are the former english colonies, the small states moulded by islam, and other small states. Pecuüarities can be found even in the textural picture of their constitutions: the varied preamble-culture, the detailed clauses regarding State territory, space and borders, the exhausrive chapters on citizenship and the general clauses on resources. 4. A 
description of older and newer classical texts and scientific theories from J. Burckhardt and C. von Brentano 
to F. Gschnitzer 
is followed by a digestion of elements and perspectives of a culturological Constitution theory of the small State, its structural and funcrional openness, its 
conditionahries and possibiliries. Key 
words are: the personal side (the more intimate relati- onship citizen/state), the cultural receprion, especially of foreign law, as well as limited space and low popularion as culture-anthropological determinants of 
the small State (scarcity of resources). 5. Many facts seem to suggest that in the setring of the disintegrarion of the east bloc a trend to the small State will gain momentum. Especially in a Europe of regions and communities as well as in the continuously clearer distinguishable world 
Community of consriturional states the small State fulfills an unrenouncable, sometimes model funcrion. The word "world 
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