Criminal Legislation in Germany

Abstract

If I wish to inform you about “criminal legislation” (“Strafgesetzgebung”) in Germany, I must straight away establish a fundamental difference, so as to distinguish, in what follows, between criminal legislation, as it is actually implemented, and criminal legislation, as it ought to be implemented by Law. It so happens that there are ostensible differences (in Germany at least) between its factual implementation, which we will analyse, and the normative ‘ought to be’ of criminal legislation. However, not in relation to the formal procedural channel, but in relation to the impetus (“Anstoß”) of that procedure and the material criteria which should guide the decision-maker within it.

English translation by Antony Ross Price from a Spanish translation by Fernando Guanarteme Sánchez Lázaro of the original article in German by Andreas Hoyer.