Functioning of the criminal justice system

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The functionality of the criminal justice system is a topos that goes back to the Federal Constitutional Court and that serves to substantiate the interests of criminal prosecution in case law and political debate. It is compared with the interests and rights of the accused and witnesses in criminal proceedings and counteracts them.

The functionality of the criminal justice system is of practical relevance when it comes to the question of whether a ban on gathering evidence leads to a ban on the exploitation of evidence ; i.e. whether unlawful evidence may be used in criminal proceedings. Under Anglo-Saxon law, this is generally not permitted (see fruits of the poisoned tree ). In German law, on the other hand, a balance has to be weighed between the basic rights of the person concerned and the state's interest in prosecuting under the heading of the proper functioning of the criminal justice system .

Generally, a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court on the right of social workers to refuse to testify is the hour of birth of the topos. Compared to the effectiveness considerations already made earlier, the topos is characterized by an alleged connection of the interests of criminal prosecution with the continuation of the constitutional state. So it is mostly derived from the rule of law or the state's monopoly of force. Recently, instead of the “functionality of the criminal justice system”, the “effectiveness”, “ effectiveness ” or also “ efficiency ” of the criminal justice system has been mentioned more and more often . The changed choice of words is not accompanied by a change in meaning. Indications of a quantitative reduction in effectiveness cannot be found on the basis of the number of procedures. However, the effectiveness of criminal justice is only accessible to a very limited extent from a qualitative perspective.

literature

  • Hassemer, Winfried: Functionality of the criminal justice system - a new legal term? StV, 1982, p. 275 ff .
  • Landau, Herbert: The duty of the state to maintain a functioning criminal justice system . NStZ, 2007, p. 121 .
  • Patz, Martin: The effectiveness of the criminal justice system . Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-631-59376-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. Dallmeyer: The rebirth of the "functionality of the criminal justice system?" , in HRRS , issue 10/2009, pp. 429, 431.
  2. BVerfG, decision of July 19, 1972, Az. 2 BvL 7/71; BVerfGE 33, 367 , 383 - Right to refuse to testify for social workers.