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Crime Lab
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law
Department of Public Law
Identity Controls at 'Dangerous Places'
Department of Public Law Project
In German police law security measures usually demand a 'concrete danger'. This threshold is fundamental for the rule of law. Since the 1970s, however, the police are entitled to undertake precautionary measures irrespective of a con­crete danger. One of these new authorities is the entitlement to verify someone's identity at 'dangerous places' even though the individual person has done nothing to raise suspicion beyond being physically present at a certain place.
This doctoral dissertation systematically critiques the criteria used by police for designating public space and its con­nection to crime, making two timely contributions to Public Security Law. First, it aims to create a more pro­found understanding of the thresholds of interference and their systematization in this new field of precautionary police actions. Second, by linking thresholds of interference to preliminary stages, this project aims to analyze how rule of law standards can be best ensured. With fundamental rights at stake, the research will include the discriminatory potential of typified grounds of interference.
Positioned at the core of the Department's research priorities on fun­da­men­tal structure and challenges to fun­da­men­tal rights and rule-of-law-values, this project blends doctrinal analysis, statutory interpretation, and empir­ical research methods to evaluate connections between crime and public space. Expected outcomes will include a more comprehensive understanding of the doctrinal structure of police law and the threats these new dynamics are imposing on fundamental rights and the rule of law.
Research outcome:
doctoral dissertation at the University of Freiburg (2019–2022)
Project language: German
Photo: © Matt Popovich/Unsplash
Head of project
Antonia Strecke
Doctoral Researcher +49 761 7081-368 a.strecke@csl.mpg.de
Constitutional Requirements for the Treatment of Civil Disobedience
While civil disobedience is widely discussed in political theory, it remains mostly neglected in German legal schol­ar­ship. Bridging this gap, this dissertation examines under what conditions, and in what ways, civil disobedience may be constitutionally protected under German law. My primary research question asked whether and how far civil…
Mitigation for Failed Attempts
Department of Criminal Law Project
Joel Feinberg once noted, "Every bona fide philosopher of law tries his hand at least once at the ancient problem of punishing failed attempts" (37 Arizona Law Review 117 [1995]). While this is certainly true of Anglo-Americans, contemporary German jurists have remained surprisingly silent on the subject. In particular, the effects of failure on…
The Real Pain of Punishment: Eradicating Social Exclusion from Criminal Justice
The quest for alternative approaches to criminal conduct is one of the most pressing justice issues in the vast majority of crim­i­nal legal systems. There is increasing recognition that the number of people incarcerated reflects a societal failure to respond effectively to the challenges faced by the most vulnerable members of our societies. The…
'General Life Risk' in German Security Law
To limit the exercise of police powers, German public security law authorizes police to avert so-called dangers. That is, a 'danger' is a condition for legitimate use of police power. 'Danger' thereby is a term of art. Not all risks are 'dan­gers', and in the common doctrine, there is only a 'danger' in the case of a 'sufficient probability of…
Epistemology of the Terrorism Threat
A Critical Appraisal of Risk Assessment Structures of the European Court of Human Rights
NetzDG and Human Rights
The project "NetzDG and Human Rights" addresses the regulatory framework and the detrimental effects on hu­man rights and fundamental freedoms of the Act to Improve Enforcement of the Law in Social Networks (Net­work En­force­ment Act, NetzDG), which entered into force on October 1, 2017, and its recent amendment by the Act to Combat Right-Wing…
Rethinking the Social Environment in American Criminal Law Theory, Doctrine, and Practice
A Neurolaw Study
The Legal Framework of Security Agencies Forecasting Based on the Use of Risk Assessment Instruments
Risk assessment instruments provide a promising but controversial forecasting approach for security agencies. This doctoral project aims to structure the legal framework of their use in counterterrorism and counterextremism. A com­pre­hen­sive analytical framework will be developed by examining which types of instruments are compatible with the…
Democracy and State Secrets
Calibrating Public Accountability in Modern Intelligence Gathering
Necessity and the State's Monopoly on the Use of Force
Reason for and Scope of the Primacy of State Procedures in the Context of Section 34 German Criminal Code
Correctional Treatment and Reentry of Sex Offenders
Department of Criminology Project
Sex offenders in the social therapeutic institutions in the Free State of Saxony
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