Trayvon Martin, Diren Dede, Oscar Pistorius – within recent years, these three names became tantamount to criminal trials widely covered by German media, even though the trials took place abroad. In this context, issues of Anglo-American criminal law received the attention of the German general public: The killings of Trayvon Martin and Diren Dede led to a comparison of German and US self-defence law; in the Pistorius case Frankfurt criminal law professor Lüderssen recognised an interconnectivity of two defences/mistakes negating the mental element, which in his view – transferred to the German context – was nothing less than a „small doctrinal sensation“.

Against this background of a growing interest in Anglo-American Criminal Law and Justice, the lecture series will address the basic concepts and foundations of both the Anglo-American Criminal Law and Criminal Justice System in comparison to the German system. From a civil law, especially German, perspective, Anglo-American Criminal Law lacks a clear systematisation. This may be partly due to the fact that it is not codified in a criminal code but instead made up of unwritten law and a multitude of separate acts, and that its most important source of law is traditional common law. Thus, it is left to criminal law scholarship to elaborate a more systematic and doctrinally coherence system.

The lecture series „Anglo-American Criminal Law and Justice“ carries on the tradition of lectures on English Criminal Law, organised by our Department in Winter Semester 2008/09 and financed by tuition fees at that time. Starting in Summer Semester 2015 and supported by students of ELSA Göttingen, the series is designed to establish a regularity of lectures on Anglo-American Criminal Law and Justice: Two to three times per Semester on a Tuesday at 6 pm, students of the Law Faculty (both undergraduate and doctoral students) will be given the unique opportunity to hear leading scholars from England and – later – the USA and Canada. These distinguished speakers are going to address major issues of Criminal Law and Justice from different perspectives, providing their audience not only with a better understanding of these issues, but also with an insight that goes far beyond the legal pitfalls of Trayvon Martin, Diren Dede and Oscar Pistorius.

Coordination: Dr. Alexander Heinze  (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)