Department of Criminal Law

Head of project: Valerij Zisman
Normative debates often rely on theories about what is right and wrong. In the case of punishment theory, for ex­am­ple, retributivists often rely on deontological theories, while proponents of deterrence theory draw from utilitari­an­ism. more

Head of project: Valerij Zisman
In the past, theorizing in criminal law was seen as a primarily philosophical and legal enterprise. Recently, scholars have begun trying to combine research from moral and social psychology, which investigate what drives people to impose punishment, with the normative literature on punishment theory. more

Head of project: Lucas Montenegro
Confiscation as a legal consequence of a criminal offense is becoming in­creas­ingly important worldwide, particu­larly in the fight against economic crime. The increasing relevance of this kind of confiscation goes hand in hand with the in­creasing flexibility of traditional criminal law principles. more

Head of project: Claudia Wittl
Interdisciplinary cooperation is becoming more and more important for the legal sciences; nevertheless, legal methodology and doctrine have remained largely resistant to the influence of the empirical sciences. This is due, first, to the defensive attitude most German legal scholars take towards the empirical sciences. more

Head of project: Morten Boe
Guilt is the focal point of (German) criminal law: it is a prerequisite of pun­ish­ment, is guaranteed by the constitu­tional principle of guilt, and is the epitome of the general systemic decision to adopt a culpability-based criminal law. more

Head of project: Manuel Cordes
Mentally healthy adults unlawfully engaging in conduct that satisfies the def­i­ni­tional elements of a criminal of­fence are, with rare exceptions – e.g., in situa­tions of “excusing necessity” (§ 35 German Criminal Code) or duress (§ 2.09 Model Penal Code) – widely regarded as prototypical subjects of individual… more

Head of project: Cristina Valega Chipoco
The outcome of this research project will be a contribution to an edited volume coordinated by the Universidad del Rosario (Colombia) and the Network of Latin American Law Scholars (Red ALAS). The overall aim of the book is to examine condom deception as a form of sexual violence from a legal perspective… more

Head of project: Marthe Goudsmit Samaritter
Placing Technology-Facilitated Violence in the Realm of Justified Criminal Law.
In an era where digital technology has become intertwined with every aspect of daily life, im­age-based sexual abuse and technology-facilitated sexual violence have emerged as signifi­cant legal and societal issues. more

Heads of project: Konstanze Jarvers, Emily Silverman, Cristina Valega Chipoco
Killings of women, the most serious form of gender-based violence, is a phenomenon that has existed worldwide since time immemorial. And yet it has only recently become the focus of cultural and legal debate. With that in mind, this international comparative research… more

Head of project: Konstanze Jarvers
The phenomenon of domestic and gender-based violence against women is widespread and affects all social classes and all countries. In 2014, for example, 33% of women in the EU between the ages of 18 and 74 had been victims of physical or sexual assault at some point in their lives. more

Head of project: Nora Scheidegger
Due to the reconceptualization of rape and other sexual offenses as violations of the victim’s sexual autonomy and in view of the obligations arising from international and regional human rights law, more and more European legal systems are revising their understanding of sexual offenses to reflect the victim’s… more

Head of project: Céline Feldmann
Should a person be criminally liable for sexual acts that involve circumstances of mistaken consent? This disser­ta­tion discusses whether negligent sexual assault should be criminalized under S. 177 StGB (a position advocated by Hörnle and Jerouschek twenty years ago), and if so, how this could be accomplished.
Under… more

Head of project: Cristina Valega Chipoco
During the past two decades, many transnational and domestic statutes that regulate the offence of rape have turned away from considering violence or threats as necessary modalities of the offence and have begun treating non-consent as its essential element. This transition can be seen in recent… more

Heads of project: Valerij Zisman, Ivó Co­ca-Vi­la
What role does the relationship between the state and its citizens play for criminal law theory? A number of in­flu­en­tial scholars assume that criminal law must be founded on a bond of citizenship between the offender and the state that reinforces the legitimacy of criminal punishment. If this is… more

Heads of project: Tatjana Hörnle, Ivó Coca-Vila
More and more climate activists are opting to break minor laws in order to get maximum exposure for their pro­tests. In fact, a number of climate justice movements—such as Last Generation, Extinction Rebellion, and Ende Gelände—explicitly call for civil disobedience and coercive forms of protest as a… more

Head of project: Tatjana Hörnle
Sociologists and cultural sociologists describe increasingly plural, multicultural, and fragmented societies. Migra­tion is one of the factors that contribute to these phenomena. The goal of the project is to describe and evaluate the influence of the aforementioned societal developments on substantive criminal law… more

Heads of project: Clara Rigoni, Hatem Elliesie
Study of So-Called Paralleljustiz in Criminal Law in North Rhine-Westphalia.
In the last few years, the informal resolution of disputes within minority groups in Germany has been increasingly criticized and referred to as Paralleljustiz (parallel justice) with a clearly negative connotation. These kinds… more

Head of project: Federica Coppola
The quest for alternative approaches to criminal conduct is one of the most pressing justice issues in the vast majority of crim­i­nal legal systems. There is increasing recognition that the number of people incarcerated reflects a societal failure to respond effectively to the challenges faced by the most… more

Head of project: Cristina Valega Chipoco
The outcome of this research project will be a collaborative contribution to an edited volume on gender and consti­tu­tionalism in Latin America, forthcoming from Routledge, which undertakes a close examination of the role of con­sti­tu­tional law and… more

Head of project: Jörg Arnold
Right-wing extremism is an acute threat to democratic civil society and must be taken seriously. The need for both preventive and repressive socio-political responses that comply with the rule of law is urgent. Criminal law, too, has an important role to play in this… more

Head of project: Benjamin Vogel
Confronted with transnational terrorism and other forms of organised crime that elude the territorial borders of nation states, law enforcement authorities in many countries are increasingly turning to the private sector to tackle illicit financial flows. While banks… more

Contact: Konstanze Jarvers more