Abstract
With the GDR’s accession to the Federal Republic, the FRG’s legal system was extended to include the new federal states, where it was only possible to build up the criminal law system by using personnel from the Federal Republic. Their secondment created staff shortages, which once again led to a reduction in the application of criminal law through reducing the size of judicial panels, limiting appeals, limiting the formal right to make evidential motions, expanding the summary written procedure (Strafbefehl) and extending the principle of discretionary prosecution.
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Notes
- 1.
Rechtspflege-Entlastungsgesetz [Administration of Justice (Reduction of Workload) Act] 1993; on this, cf. the critical response of the criminal defence lawyers’ associations. Cologne 1991.
- 2.
On its background, cf. Christian Schäfer, “Widernatürliche Unzucht”. Reformdiskussion und Gesetzgebung seit 1945. Berlin 2006.
- 3.
BGBl. I p. 1398 of 27 July 1992, Vormbaum / Welp, StGB, No. 146.
- 4.
BVerfGE 86, 390, 393.
- 5.
BVerfGE 88, 203, 208.
- 6.
On this, see also: Klaus Lüderssen, Die ewige Versuchung des Täterstrafrechts. Das Verhalten im Strafvollzug als Voraussetzung für vorbehaltene oder nachträgliche Sicherungsverwahrung, in: KJ 2006, 361 ff.
- 7.
The European Court of Human Rights’ judgment is available under: http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?action=html&documentId=868979&portal= hbkm&source=externalbydocnumber&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649.
- 8.
Günther Jakobs, Kriminalisierung im Vorfeld einer Rechtsgutsverletzung, in: ZStW 1985, 751 ff.
- 9.
For a critical view, cf. e.g. Francisco Muñoz Conde, Über das “Feindstrafrecht”. German ed. Münster 2007; Tatjana Hörnle, Deskriptive und normative Dimensionen des Begriffs “Feindstrafrecht”, in: GA 2006, p. 81 ff; Frank Saliger, Feindstrafrecht: Kritisches oder totalitäres Strafrechtskonzept? In: JZ 2006, 756 ff.; differentiating between law for enemies and a “criminal law intended to combat”, Massimo Donini, Das Strafrecht und der Feind. German ed., Münster 2007. A collection of texts on the debate surrounding criminal law for enemies: Thomas Uwer (Ed.): Bitte bewahren Sie Ruhe. Leben im Feindrechtsstaat. Berlin 2006; Thomas Vormbaum / Martin Asholt (Eds.), Kritik des Feindstrafrechts (incl. introduction by Th. Vormbaum). Berlin, Münster 2009 (contributions by German, Italian and Spanish authors).
- 10.
On this, cf. Massimo La Torre, Ohne Erbarmen. Das Recht der Folter, in: JJZG 10 (2008/2009), p. 266 ff., 277 footnote. “A sterilized needle inserted under the fingernails to produce unbearable pain without any threat to health or life” (thus the American lawyer Alan Deshowitz).
- 11.
Although the “ticking bomb” argument was used very early on by a famous German philosopher and legal theorist. In a 1992 lecture, Luhmann evoked this scenario and suggested “allowing torture by internationally supervised courts, television monitoring of the scene in Geneva or Luxembourg, or remote control using telecommunication”: Niklas Luhmann, Gibt es in unserer Gesellschaft noch unverzichtbare Normen? Heidelberg 1993, p. 1 ff., 27; here quoted from La Torre, op. cit., p. 285.
- 12.
On the Daschner case and the question of whether the prohibition of torture should be relativised in Germany also—for example, if placed under police law and thus made subject to a balancing assessment—cf. Olaf Miehe, NJW 2003, 1219 ff.; Winfried Brugger, JZ 2003, 165 ff.; Rainer Hamm, NJW 2003, 946 ff.; Hans Christoph Schäfer, NJW 2003, 947 ff.—Judgment of the Frankfurt Regional Court of 20 December 2004 in the Daschner case: NJW 2005, 692 ff. The European Court of Human Rights’ judgment is available under: http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/viewhbkm.asp?skin= hudoc-en&action=html&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649&key=82 707&highlight=.
- 13.
For the previous history, cf. Heiko Ahlbrecht, Geschichte der völkerrechtlichen Strafgerichtsbarkeit im 20. Jahrhundert. Baden-Baden 1999, particularly p. 335 ff.; Christina Möller, Völkerstrafrecht und Internationaler Strafgerichtshof, Münster 2003, particularly p. 573 ff. The International Criminal Court had been preceded by the ad hoc tribunals for crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia in Den Haag and crimes committed in the Rwandan conflict in Arusha. By contrast, after the end of the Iraq war the former dictator Saddam Hussein was executed following a comparatively brief trial; on this, cf. Massimo Donini, Der Tod des Saddam Hussein, in: JJZG 8 (2006/2007), p. 408 ff.; a critical view is presented in Kai Ambos / Primurat Said, Das Todesurteil gegen Saddam Hussein, in: JZ 2007, 822 ff. Given the power relations, no court investigation into the Iraq war under international law took place; on this, cf. the essay collection Kai Ambos / Jörg Arnold (Eds.), Der Irak-Krieg und das Völkerrecht. Berlin 2004; also cf. Stefan Baufeld, Der 11. September 2001 als Herausforderung für das Völkerrecht. Münster 2005, p. 24 ff.
- 14.
On its creation, cf. Bundesministerium der Justiz (Ed.), Arbeitsentwurf eines Gesetzes zur Einführung des Völkerstrafgesetzbuchs mit Begründung. Erstellt von der vom Bundesministerium der Justiz eingesetzten Arbeitsgruppe Völkerstrafgesetzbuch. Baden-Baden 2001; Sascha Lüder / Thomas Vormbaum (Eds.), Materialien zum Völkerstrafgesetzbuch. Dokumentation des Gesetzgebungsverfahrens. Münster 2002.
- 15.
On elements of “criminal law for enemies” in international criminal law, cf. Emanuela Fronza, Feindstrafrecht und Internationale Strafgerichtsbarkeit, in: JoJZG 1 (2007), 121 ff.
- 16.
On this, cf. Wolfgang Naucke, Europäische Gemeinsamkeiten in der neueren Strafrechtsgeschichte und Folgerungen für die aktuelle Debatte, in: JJZG 3 (2001/2002), 439 ff.; Massimo Donini, Ein neues strafrechtliches Mittelalter? Altes und Neues in der Expansion des Wirtschaftstrafrechts, in: Id., Strafrechtstheorie, p. 203 ff.
- 17.
H.J. Hirsch, Bilanz der Strafrechtsreform, in: Gedenkschrift Hilde Kaufmann (Berlin 1986), p. 133 f.
- 18.
BT-Drucksache 13/7164, Begr. p. 18.
- 19.
Freund, ZStW 109 (1997), p. 455 (455): “It is no exaggeration to state: the scope of this enterprise equates to a Grand Reform of the Special Part”.
- 20.
For individual details, cf. Freund, ZStW 109 (1997), p. 455, 469.
- 21.
Prosecutor General Frenzel, Chief Prosecutors Gold-Pfuhl, Hubmann (Prosecution of the District Court Nuremberg-Fürth), Kempf (German Bar Association), Federal Supreme Court judge Nack, Federal Supreme Court presiding judge Schäfer, Prof. Sack (Hamburg), Weber (President of the District Court Traunstein), Wick (Public Prosecution Office Munich) and lawyer Prof. Widmaier (Karlsruhe).
- 22.
On this, cf. the contributions in: Friedrich Dencker / Eberhard Struensee / Ursula Nelles / Ulrich Stein, Einführung in das 6. Strafrechtsreformgesetz 1998. Munich 1998.
- 23.
On this, see Andrea Czelk, “Privilegierung” und Vorurteil. Positionen der Bürgerlichen Frauenbewegung zum Unehelichenrecht und zur Kindstötung im Kaiserreich. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2005, p. 234 ff.
- 24.
Introduced by the 43rd Criminal Law Amendment Act of 29 July 2009 (BGBl. I, p. 2288); more detail in Streng, NK. 3rd ed. 2009.
- 25.
More detail in Vormbaum, NK. 3rd ed. 2009, § 164 marginal note 79 ff.
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Vormbaum, T., Bohlander, M. (2014). § 6 Current Events in Criminal Law. In: Bohlander, M. (eds) A Modern History of German Criminal Law. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37273-5_6
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