Head of project: Johanna Fink Over the past thirty years, cooperation with foreign police forces not directly bound by national police law has become more frequent and diverse in EU member states. In addition to more traditional forms of co-operation, such as the exchange of information in the context of mutual legal assistance requests, there are now temporary deployments of police officers to other countries for operational measures and permanent bilateral joint task forces between individual member states.
Head of project: Philipp-Alexander Hirsch In German criminal-law doctrine, deliberate high-risk behavior is strictly dichotomized as either intentional or negligent behavior. The border line runs between dolus eventualis (“conditional intent”) and bewusste Fahrlässigkeit (“conscious negligence”), although this is accompanied by problems with regard to proving intent in the trial and determining punishment proportionate to the wrongness of the deed and the guilt of the offender.
Head of project: Ralf Poscher This long-term project, begun about a decade ago, aims to provide a philosophically updated account of legal hermeneutics. Whereas legal hermeneutics has often been associated with continental philosophical approaches (e.g., Gadamer, Ricœur), the project addresses the questions discussed in this tradition with the means of analytical philosophy.
Heads of project: Jean-Louis van Gelder, Willem Frankenhuis Why are some people more likely to commit crime than others? Answers to this question, which is at the heart of criminology, can be grouped into two broad views. On the one hand, dispositional perspectives argue that stable factors within the individual, such as lack of self-control, lie at the roots of criminal conduct.
Head of project: Lea Bachmann With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, new players are entering the corporate arena. While they offer many advantages, they also pose new risks. Using the example of AI systems for anti-money laundering, this doctoral project will analyze the potential criminal liability of managers and companies who use AI systems and – based on this analysis – develop due diligence requirements for the use of AI systems in companies.
Head of project: Laura Wisser People with migrant backgrounds are strongly underrepresented in German policing. This fact is legally problematic for multiple reasons. First, due to violations of equality principles guaranteed in Art. 3 and Art. 33 II of the German Constitution. On an individual level, structures that discourage migrant peoples from successfully applying or completing their education would be highly questionable and, in some cases, unconstitutional.
Head of project: Lucas Montenegro Confiscation as a legal consequence of a criminal offense is becoming increasingly important worldwide, particularly in the fight against economic crime. The increasing relevance of this kind of confiscation goes hand in hand with the increasing flexibility of traditional criminal law principles.
Heads of project: T. Hörnle, V. Bergelson, M. Cancio Meliá, M. Madden Dempsey, S. Green, J. Herring, M. Kagrell, C. Lernestedt, E. E. Murphy, N. Scheidegger, St. Schulhofer, M. Thorburn Traditional criminal laws defined sexual assault as a crime that required violence or threats of violence. Paradigms have shifted: present-day law reforms in various countries focus on lack of consent.
Heads of project: Simon Gansinger, Antonia Hofstätter Published in 1963, Theodor W. Adorno’s “Sexual Taboos and Law Today” constituted a timely intervention in the public debate on changing sexual mores in the 1960s. Critiquing repressive bourgeois morality and progressive sexual values alike, the essay suggests that the utopian potential of intimacy is inseparable from the tension sexuality creates for self and society.
Head of project: Gunda Wössner In the vast majority of sex offenses, offender and victim know each other. However, violent sexual assaults perpetrated by strangers often incite strong feelings of fear in the community. Furthermore, rapes by strangers often pose considerable challenges and concern for law enforcement agencies. They are often faced with a multitude of complex and delicate tasks with regard to the handling of these cases.
Head of project: Ralf Poscher This long-term project examines whether it is possible to develop a general doctrinal scheme for public security measures comparable to the general doctrinal schemes (Verbrechenssysteme) of substantive criminal law, how such a scheme would have to be conceptualized, and what functions it could serve in a national and international context.
Head of project: Jean-Louis van Gelder The 360º Virtual Scenario Method research program aims to remedy some of the defects of the traditional written scenario (or “vignette”) method by employing immersive 360º video. This immersive method is based on the assumption that the commonly used written scenarios lack contextual detail and are unlikely to capture the more visceral and emotional aspects that surround real-world offending, which commonly occurs during “hot” and altered states of mind.