Increasingly, international governmental networks and organisations make
it necessary to master the legal principles of other jurisdictions.
Since the advent of international criminal tribunals this need has fully
reached criminal law. A large part of their work is based on comparative
research. The legal systems which contribute most to this systemic
discussion are common law and civil law, sometimes called continental
law. So far this dialogue appears to have been dominated by the former.
While there are many reasons for this, one stands out very clearly:
Language. English has become the lingua franca of international legal
research. The present book addresses this issue. Thomas Vormbaum is one
of the foremost German legal historians and the book's original has
become a cornerstone of research into the history of German criminal law
beyond doctrinal expositions; it allows a look at the system's genesis,
its ideological, political and cultural roots. In the field of
comparative research, it is of the utmost importance to have an
understanding of the law's provenance, in other words its historical
DNA.