The formation of transnational criminal law regimes in the modern era

Project management: Prof. Dr. Thomas Duve

The project examines the formation of transnational criminal law regimes in the 18th and 19th centuries, which manifested themselves in international treaties, national criminal law, international expert discourses and different state practices. A key aim is to analyse the interdependencies between transnational and national norms, actual state practice and international discourses, conferences and organizations. Of particular interest is the study of political crimes that were perceived as transnational security threats and acted as a narrative to drive the development of transnational criminal justice regimes.

The sub-project enriches the research area with valuable empirical and historical material on the development of transnational legal systems in the modern era. It reconstructs the formation of transnational criminal law regimes in the 18th and 19th centuries. By focusing on specific fields of transnational legal interactions – extradition, political asylum, mutual legal assistance and police cooperation – and on a variety of different state and non-state actors, from the European powers to states in Latin America and Asia, the interdependencies of transnational security and criminal law regimes and (international) normative orders are investigated in order to explain the emergence of legal pluralism, fragmentation and regime collisions.

Important issues were explored in greater depth in two dissertation projects. Conrad Tyrichter analyzed “Political crime and transnational criminal law regimes in the 19th century using the example of the German Confederation”, Tina Hannappel worked on “Transnational criminal law regimes from 1871-1914. The reactions of German and European legal systems to political crime”. A workshop in 2014 resulted in an edited volume that will be published in 2017; the working title is: “International Security, Political Crime, and Resistance: The Transnationalization of Normative Orders and the Formation of Criminal Law Regimes in the 19th and 20th Centuries”. The project has also expanded its cooperation with the ERC research project in Leiden (B. de Graaf) and the SFB “Dynamics of Security” in Marburg/Gießen.

The study of political crime and political conflicts – from political dissidence, refugees and exiles to riots, assassinations and other forms of political violence – that were perceived or criminalized as transnational security threats underlines the importance of justification narratives with regard to the emergence of normative orders. It shows the extent to which observable processes of securitization and de-securitization as well as legalization and de-legalization contributed to a more durable normative order of transnational security and criminal law regimes and thus to a “transnational governance of violence, crime and security”.

The most important publications in this project:

Härter, Karl/Tina Hannappel/Conrad Tyrichter (eds.): International Security, Political Crime, and Resistance: The Transnationalization of Normative Orders and the Formation of Criminal Law Regimes in the 19th and 20th Century, ed.

Härter, Karl: “Security and Transnational Policing of Political Subversion and International Crime in Central Europe after 1815”, in: B. de Graaf/I. de Haan/B. Vick (eds.): Securing Europe. 1815 and the new European security culture , i.E.

Härter, Karl: “Attentatsbilder in populären Druckmedien: Politische Attentate und strafrechtlich-polizeiliche Reaktionen in Europa zwischen Aufklärung, Revolution und Vormärz (1757-1820)”, in: T. Haug/A. Krischer (eds.): Hellish engineers. Assassinations and conspiracies as political delinquency c. 1300-1850, in the original.

Hannappel, Tina: “‘Doch konnten bis jetzt keine Thatsachen constatirt werden’: Attentatsfurcht und Strafrechtspraxis am Beispiel Duchesne-Poncelet 1873-76′, in T. Haug/A. Krischer (eds.): Hellish engineers. Assassinations and conspiracies as political delinquency, ca. 1300-1850 , i.E.

Tyrichter, Conrad: “Das Attentat auf König Louis-Philippe I. am 28. Juli 1835 und die Formierung transnationaler Sicherheitsregime in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts”, in: T. Haug/A. Krischer (eds.): Hellish engineers. Assassinations and conspiracies as political delinquency, ca. 1300-1850 , i.E.

people in this project:

Project management / contact person

Duve, Thomas, Prof. Dr.

Project staff

Hannappel, Tina