Abstract

The demand for a right to military tax refusal aims at the protection from those conflicts of conscience that are resulting from an indirect involvement of the citizen in a state's capability of warfare. This raises the generat question of the relevance of conscience for public law. Normative and functional theories of conscience can only insufficiently explain the experience ofthe human conscience. The protestant concept of a freed conscience includes the possibility, that a Christian takes the responsibility for non-intended effects ofhis actions. In the case of a legal right to refuse military tax, an equal right ought tobe granted to persans whose conscience is worried by other kinds of conflicts. But this would be hardly compatible with the principle of democracy. The burden of conscience of those who refuse military taxes should be taken into account by individual regulations but not regulated by law