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Abstract:

The family is still an important cornerstone of society. Therefore, states have the obligation to respect and protect family life as much as possible. Furthermore, different branches of law address families as special groups deserving special consideration. In criminal and criminal procedural law, we notice an evolution with regard to the importance of the family as a protected legal interest. In the past, the legislator used to protect the loyalty between family members and was reluctant towards intervention in conflicts it considered private. Nowadays, however,the drafters of criminal law and procedure rules seems to prioritize protecting the individual family members instead of the family unit as such. This research aims at determining the position of the family incriminal law and criminal procedural law. We assume that states have the obligation to respect and protect the family (art. 8 ECHR). The question is how the legislator has to translate this obligation into substantive and procedural criminal law provisions.