ign investment, such an alliance gave the late German Democratic Republic a seemingly insurmountable lead over other nations. In regards to the political aspects of unification, it effectively left a Germany with no national or ethnic minorities, as well as having undisputed boundaries. As well, there was no need to create a constitution (although many of the pitfalls of constitution-building would have been easily-avoided due to the advantages Germany had), because the leaders of the GDR had joined the Federal Republic by accession and, accordingly, allowed its Basic Law to be extended over their territory. For all the good that seemed to be imminent as a result of unification, many problems also arose regarding the political transformation that Germany was undergoing. Among these problems were the following: the tensions between the Basic Law's simultaneous commitments to supranational integration and to the German nation state, the relationship between the nation and the constitution as two different modes of political integration and the issue of so-called "backward justice" (Preuss 48). The Federal Republic of Germany's Basic Law has been the longest-lived constitution in Germany's history. Intended to be a short-lived, temporary document, the Basic Law gained legitimacy as West Germany continued to march towards becoming a major economic power and effective democratic society. There seemed to be, at first, a tension between the Basic Law's explicit support of re-unification and its promise to transfer sovereignty to a supranational institution that would be created. The conflict between West Germany's goals of national unity and international integration remained the main issue in the country's politics for many years. As Preuss notes, "It will be extremely difficult to escape the economic and, in the long run also political, implications of this double-bind situation of Germany, one that rema...
