Criminal Proceedings as a Political Weapon - On the European Limits of Abusive Criminal Proceedings and the Resilience of German Criminal Law

• Applicant: Dr. Anneke Petzsche-Dupper
• Subject Area: Criminal Law
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 540707125

In this project, the development of the politicisation of criminal procedural law in Europe is to be examined more closely under the aspect of misuse of criminal proceedings for political reasons, and the legal implications are to be determined. The central goal is to develop a European standard for abusive criminal proceedings, which can be used to examine national legal systems. The problem will be delineated with recourse to the discussion on a general prohibition of abuse in criminal proceedings and by analysing relevant cases, also within the framework of an international workshop in which the concrete dimensions in various countries (namely Spain, Italy, Greece, Georgia and Turkey) will be determined. Subsequently, a standard is to be developed from the European legal framework of the ECHR and EU law. The review de lege lata will be carried out for the German legal system with the aim of answering the question of the extent to which in the national legal system the structure of the legal regulations of criminal proceedings permit dysfunctional proceedings and the extent to which they (do not) prevent criminal proceedings from being misused by individual actors as a political weapon against the person concerned. In doing so, it is precisely the systemic weaknesses of German law that are to be identified. In addition to analysing the general structures of criminal procedural law under the aspect of susceptibility to (political) abuse, three specific areas that exemplify the use of criminal proceedings as a weapon and are of importance due to the particular burdens associated with them will be examined: the (deliberate) delay of proceedings, the instrumentalisation of publicity of criminal proceedings, and the abuse of instruments of international mutual legal assistance. Based on these results, an assessment of the resilience of the German legal system will be made. Where German law does not meet European requirements, solutions de lege lata and de lege ferenda will be developed to strengthen the resilience of German law to abuse from within. In addition, the European framework developed in the first part of the project will serve as a basis for reviewing other (European) legal systems. Together with colleagues from Spain, Italy, Greece, Georgia and Turkey, the vulnerability of other European legal systems to misuse of criminal proceedings will be examined in a second joint workshop and national issues identified.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants