The previously allowed practice of issuing regulations that are still in the process of being circulated between the various ministries was struck down by the Constitutional Court.
Though regulations are generally issued through cabinet meetings by the ministers of the various cabinets (or ministries), there is also a possibility that the regulation in question can be issued without such a meeting while it is still being circulated amongst the different ministries, if after a given period no objections have been made.
Art.80(1) Sentence 1 GG states that Parlament must determine who is authorized to issue a regulation, and since Parlament has provided that the Administration should issue such regulations, it must be carried out in a manner for which the Administration can be held accountable. This means the members should be informed of the decision and that the decision should be made by a quorom sufficient to constitute a majority.
Since the current practice would conceivably allow a regulation to be issued without anyone but the head of the Bundeskanzler's office (the person who sets the time within which objections must be made) seeing the proposed regulation. This would go against the purpose of Art.80, and therefore the Court struck down this practice, though it refused to void any previous regulations that were issued under the old practice. However, any regulations now resulting from this practice can be treated as void or never having been issued.
(Order from Oct.11, 1994 - 1 BvR 337/92) Karlsruhe, Nov.10, 1994