Julia Geneuss, Volkerrechtsverbrechen und Verfolgungsermessen:   153f StPO im System volkerrechtlicher Strafrechtspflege [Crimes against International Law and the Discretion to Prosecute]

Abstract

Section 153f of the German Code of Criminal Procedure stands at the intersection between universal jurisdiction and national, German prosecution for crimes against international law. In her fine study entitled, Völkerrechtsverbrechen und Verfolgungsermessen, which may be translated as Crimes against International Law and the Discretion to Prosecute, Julia Geneuss analyses how the central norm — characterized as the ‘pivotal point’ of German practice in international criminal law — operates. The provision is an attempt to balance Germany’s commitment to universal jurisdiction for crimes against international law with the state’s limited resources for conducting investigations over crimes committed on foreign territory. The book details the official strategy for such crimes, that is, ‘no safe haven in Germany’, and explores the theoretical framework for implementing such a strategy.1 The book is divided into four parts. The first part introduces the basic concepts of both German and international criminal law as they relate to the national prosecution for crimes against international law. The author analyses the general duty to prosecute under German criminal and constitutional law and its relationship to Section 153f of the German Code of Criminal Procedure. This norm reduces the duty to prosecute crimes against international law, which would have otherwise arisen from the introduction of Section 1 of the German Code of Crimes against International Law,2 to a license to prosecute, to be used at the discretion of the prosecutor.3