Government crime

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As a State Crime is crime referred to in the order or with the acquiescence of governments done.

A number of facts make it difficult to investigate and prosecute this type of government crime. This also applies in the rule of law that

  • Members of the government are often also members of parliaments and therefore enjoy immunity
  • Governments have majorities in parliament that can change laws (e.g. statute of limitations) and
  • the government can exert influence on criminal investigation and prosecution in many ways (e.g. via the public prosecutor's offices bound by instructions )

In dictatorships and states that do not meet the rule of law, there are far greater opportunities for government crime, since the rule of law protection mechanisms do not exist. There is therefore typically only an opportunity to prosecute these crimes after a regime change has taken place. The Nuremberg Trials were a reappraisal of the crimes of the National Socialist regime.

A main problem here is that government crime in dictatorships typically does not provide for criminal acts of the government ( nullum crimen sine lege praevia, nulla poena sine lege (no crime, no punishment ) due to the national criminal law applicable at the time of the offense (and set by the dictatorship itself) without law)). Therefore, the international law outlaws certain serious crimes such as genocide or crimes against humanity .

Some countries such as Spain have softened the principle of the legal judge to the effect that criminal prosecution is possible even if neither the victim, the perpetrator nor the act are related to the place of the court. This means that government crime can also be prosecuted abroad.

At the international level, the International Criminal Court was created to prosecute government crimes. However, this international court is not recognized by many states (including constitutional states).

Truth commissions are an instrument that is used several times to deal with government crime .

In Germany, the term government crime was used particularly in connection with the constitutional implementation of reunification in relation to the actions of the GDR government. The results of this processing are described in the article Central Investigation Group for Government and Association Crime.

literature

  • Matthias Werner Schneider: The prosecution of government crime in the light of the ECHR . 2003, ISBN 3-89959-076-7 .
  • Christian Wicker: The concepts of proportionality and state crimes in international law: an analysis of the scope of proportionality in the right of self-defense and in the regime of international countermeasures and an evaluation of the concept of state crimes. 2006, ISBN 3-631-55884-8 .
  • Ernst-Joachim Lampe (Ed.): Working Group Criminal Law; Vol. 2., The prosecution of government criminality in the GDR after reunification. 1993, ISBN 3-452-22596-8 .
  • Hans-Jörg Schriegel: Economic and government crime in the area of ​​commercial coordination (KoKo). Diss. 2006.

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