The Criminal Responsibility of the Export Control Manager

• Applicant: Dr. Stefan Wolfgang Lehner
• Subject Area: Criminal Law
• Term: Funded in 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 447709727

In 2019, executive board members of the companies "Heckler &Koch" and "Sig Sauer" had to face criminal charges for illegal arms exports to Central and South America. Under the Impression of such "export scandals", the Bundesregierung and BAFA, as German export authorities, issue administrative regulations in which they define the due diligence obligations of the so-called Ausfuhrverantwortlicher (export manager). In Order to obtain permits from the export authorities, a member of the executive board must ensure that his company is reliable under export law. Courts are now assuming that the due diligence requirement under criminal law has been increased by these administrative regulations — which were originally only significant for the export authorities.The thesis examines whether and to what extent the export authorities haue created a special criminal responsibility through the Ausfuhrverantwortlicher. Since the Ausfuhrverantwortlicher was not directly made the subject of liability standards in foreign trade law, fundamental questions of criminal liability arise. In this respect, the thesis deals with the perpetratorial responsibility for functional-social action, his guarantor Position and obligations, the special responsibility for compliance in the company and in particular the influence of administrative regulations as special norms an export crimes and the duties of the Ausfuhrverantwortlicher.At the same time, the thesis describes a tendency of modern legislation based an foreign trade iaw to anchor special responsibilities in companies for risks as a task of the management — especially through so-called soff law. Therefore, the thesis elaborates criteria that the criminal judge can use in the context of his judicial conviction in Order to determine the relevance of a soff law norm for thespecific case to be assessed.

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants