State crime

As a government crime offenses are referred to the place in order or with acquiescence of governments.

The Enlightenment and punishment of such government crime is complicated by a number of circumstances. So also applies in the law that

• Members of the government in many cases are also members of parliaments and therefore enjoy immunity
• Governments on parliamentary majorities have, the laws may change (eg, statute of limitations ) and
• The government can often influence the criminal investigation and tracking ( eg via the instruction-bound prosecutors)

In dictatorships and countries that do not satisfy constitutional requirements, there are far greater opportunities for government crime, since the constitutional protections do not exist. Here therefore there is typically only one way to pursue these crimes, if there has been a regime change. Thus, the Nuremberg Trials were a reappraisal of the crimes of the Nazi regime.

A major problem here is that government crime in dictatorships typically national criminal law provides by the respective valid time of the crime ( and set by the dictatorship itself ) no criminality of the acts of the government ( nullum crimen sine lege praevia, nulla poena sine lege ( no crime, no punishment without law ) ). Therefore, it is often lifted to the international law outlawing certain serious crimes such as genocide or crimes against humanity.

Some countries like Spain have the principle of statutory judge softened the effect that a prosecution is also possible if neither victims nor perpetrators nor indeed have a reference to the place of judgment. This prosecution of government crime abroad is possible.

At the international level, the International Tribunal for the prosecution of government crime was created. However, this international court ( including legal states ) not recognized by many states.

A multi- instrument used for working up government crime are truth commissions.

In Germany, the concept of government crime was particularly applied in the context of constitutional implementation of reunification with respect to the actions of the East German government. The results of this investigation are described in the article Central Investigation Group for Governmental and Party crime.