Unrechtsstaat

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,944 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Unrechtsstaat]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Unrechtsstaat}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The German term Unrechtsstaat (German: [ˈʊnʁɛçt͡sˌʃtaːt] ^ⓘ; pl. Unrechtsstaaten, German: [ˈʊnʁɛçt͡sˌʃtaːtn̩] ^ⓘ) is a pejorative approximately meaning "unconstitutional, unjust, undemocratic or unlawful state" used to refer to a state in which the exercise of major aspects of governmental power is not constrained by the law, as opposed to a Rechtsstaat (constitutional state).^[1] It is used not only as a jurisprudential term but also as a political one.^[2] The origin of the term is attributed to the Prussian Catholic politician Peter Reichensperger, who in 1853 used the term to imply that Prussia would become "unjust" if it curtailed the rights of its Catholic subjects.^[3]