The historical experience of the Nazi era and the former GDR caused that nowadays the public in Germany gives particular attention to the Constitutional State (Rechtstaat). In everyday routine the Constitutional State appears particularly under the slogan of legal protection, judicial control as excercised by independent judiciary, the fair trial, the judicial hearing and the stages of appeal. The author describes the topical problem of the Constitutional State, the tension between the legal certainty and justice, parliament and jurisdiction, and illustrates his discussion with practical examples. Like any other societas constituta et ordinata thus also the Church needs judicial authorities to settle its internal conflicts. The author reports the efforts that are made to reduce the evident deficit in the legal protection (e.g. in the areas of labour law and penal law) mainly on the level of local Church.