Introduction. In response to the “protective turn” of constitutional courts, academic discourse has focused on the dogmatic content of decisions or their external political determinants, neglecting the key question of how legitimacy is produced. Problem statement. This article proposes a hermeneutical turn, shifting the focus to the immanent technology of judicial meaning-making. Theoretical analysis. The concepts of a branched hermeneutical cycle, which describes the dual structure of legitimation in a collegial court (the majority branch vs.
