Straftatbegriff und Diskurstheorie

The discussion about a substantive, pre-legal concept of criminal law, which has been going on since the Enlightenment, inevitably leads to the philosophical debate about the origin of law. In dealing with the historical and current ideas of the legitimation of criminal law, the author puts forward the thesis that a coherent answer to the question of where a society derives its ius puniendi and what limits it is subject to has not yet been found. For this reason, the author examines criminal law in discourse theory and comes to the conclusion that a discourse theory of law can solve many of the previous problems by taking a step behind the concepts developed so far and finding the origin of criminal law in the communicative processes within a society. The analysis finally leads to the result that the essential element of criminal law can be found in a modern criminal theory based on the idea of communicative rationality: In a democratic society, criminal law serves to protect an objective freedom that is understood not only individually but also communicatively.