Breach of the peace

The breach of the peace is an offense against public order, which is committed generally by active participation in violence.

Generally

Breach of the peace requires participation in acts of violence against people or property, or the threat of violence against people from a group of people starting in joint action that jeopardize public safety in the manner; or just the prompt or the agitation for the purpose of such behaviors in other people cause or promote.

Codification

In Germany, § 125 of the Criminal Code defines it ( DStGB ) and regulates the particularly severe case of breach of the peace in § 125a. Maintenance / ch- search sStGB Art / regulated: In Austria the offense under § 274 öStGB, in Switzerland by Article Art 260Vorlage. .

The penalty is up to three years in Germany, in particularly serious cases, such as the carrying of firearms or imminent danger of death, up to ten years in prison. In Austria, the threat of punishment is in principle two years 'imprisonment who participates leader on breach of the peace or a penalized in § 274 öStGB offense referred to in the wake of rioting, shall be punished with up to three years' imprisonment. In the Swiss Penal Code, the offense is punishable by fine or imprisonment, which corresponds to a maximum penalty of three years.

Historical derivation

Originally, the breach of the peace breach of the public peace in the Middle Ages from the 11th century, ie the temporally and spatially limited prohibition to carry out a feud. The king said from the land of peace, which had to be summoned by the members of the imperial nobility. From the time of the Hohenstaufen and the country gentlemen could him exclaim.

In the late Middle Ages, the public peace was always a further extension by public law which changed the character of the public peace, and its extensions towards criminal laws (see: Perpetual Peace Country, God's peace ).

Breach of the peace in a sense was the disregard of the right to a monopoly of the state, the government of the country gentlemen of the king.

Closely related with this is the concept of land constraint in the Austrian criminal law, which can be described as free of the threat of the peace break.

• Special penology ( Germany )