Foreign conceptions of law as grounds for mitigation of punishment?
by Silvia Tellenbach
Question(s) at stake
Whether and under what conditions behavioural patterns, ideas, and views rooted in a foreign legal system can be taken into account in the mitigation of punishment.
Outcome of the ruling
The court quashed the verdict due to a grossly erroneous assessment of the evidence; additionally, in its referral of the case back to the first-instance court, it gave the instruction that behavioural patterns, ideas, and views rooted in a foreign legal system can as a rule only be taken into account in the mitigation of punishment if they are in harmony with that foreign (state) legal system.
Country:
Official citation
Federal Court of Justice, 1st Criminal Division, Judgment of 7 November 2006, 307/06 (BGH Urteil vom 7. November 2006, 1 StR 307/06)
Topic(s)
Keywords:
Honour crimes Mitigating circumstances
Tag(s):
Bibliographic information
Access case report
View case report in the CUREDI databaseAbout the authors
Silvia Tellenbach (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, Freiburg, Germany)
Dr. Dr.h.c. Silvia Tellenbach is the long-time former Head of the Turkey, Iran and Arab States Unit at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (presently: 'Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law').
Within the CUREDI project, she is using her expertise in criminal law in Germany to identify court decisions, where cultural and religious diversity issues were involved. In addition to writing templates on such cases, she acts as a reviewer and is a member of the CUREDI Editorial Board.