ABSTRACT
Criminal legislation is an important link between prevailing concepts of punishment and the actual practice of punishment in the criminal justice system. This chapter therefore asks which trends can be identified in criminal legislation in France and in Germany and if these can be seen as reflections of penal moderation or need to be classified as legislative punitiveness. For a comprehensive picture, it surveys all changes from 1995 to 2019 to the main substantive criminal law codifications, the Code pénal in France and the Strafgesetzbuch in Germany. Coded with an innovative interdisciplinary tool, the data are extensive and highly sensitive to the inner logics of each country’s legal system.
The chapter first shows strong fluctuations in the mere quantity of legislated changes, as well as focal points of legislative activity. Second, the data are analyzed for manifestations of legislative punitiveness. While the results clearly show that most of the legislative activity in both countries tilts criminal law to the more punitive pole, evidence of penal moderation is introduced, too. Last, insights on how the data reflect characteristics of the political system and the political dynamics influencing criminal legislation are presented.
