Criminal sanctions in Europe: Guidelines for the drafting and implementation of EU legal instruments

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Helmut Satzger
• Subject Area: Criminal Law
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 274138510

This project pursues the elaboration of guidelines for the future harmonisation of criminal sanctions in the European Union. They primarily offer orientation to the European legislator but also aim to assist national legislators when transposing directives into domestic law and to encourage reformations of the domestic sanctioning systems and practice, opening them to European law. So far, the focus of European harmonisation efforts has been placed on elements of criminal offences, whereas the legal consequences, i.e. the question how criminalized conduct shall be punished, have only been treated superficially and inaccurately in European directives. Yet, it is the legal consequences which reveal the significance of an offense and how severe the respective legislator considers it to be. Major differences in sanctions between the Member States lead to the assumption that one and the same offence - even if it has already been subject of harmonization concerning its elements - is not considered equally severe in the respective states. This, however, runs counter to the European Union´s central aim to create a single area of freedom, security and justice. On the basis of a comprehensive collection of information, this project commits itself first to determine the current principles and characteristics of the respective domestic sanctioning systems. Through comparative legal analysis, the key similarities and differences will be identified. The findings will then be used as the basis for the development of guidelines for an approach to the harmonisation of sanctions which is effective while considering and respecting the domestic peculiarities. The focus will mainly be on areas for which the European Union already has the competence to harmonise. Though the influence of yet unharmonised areas on harmonisation measures and the question of where additional competences may be desirable or necessary will also be addressed. In order to establish a broad basis for the intended legal comparison and the elaboration of guidelines, the network will consist of 23 criminal law experts especially from Europe, but also from the USA, Japan and South America. The core of the working group will be the members of the European Criminal Policy Initiative, which has been established by the applicant and consists of highly qualified scholars from 14 European countries.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants