Criminal law reform in Germany

This is the third piece by Rafał Lemkin extracted from the archives of the Voice of Law. This time, it is a short note on the changes to the criminal law of the Nazi Germany. The text was published in 1934 in the Literary News' special supplement Law, criminal, life, which, as it was then reported, was dedicated to criminology.  The supplement was probably co-created by the Institute of Criminology of the Free Polish University - the first scientific institution of this type in Poland. Lemkin presents not only the underlying principles of the proposed changes to the German criminal law, but also observes to what consequences can the founding of the criminal law on the principles of protecting the German race lead. He concludes by stating that the legal sciences of other countries view this reverse development of the criminal law in Germany with amazement and fear.

According to the Editors, this little-known text by Lemkin deserves to be published again and to be treated as yet another source for further research on his studies in the field international criminal law.

Keywords:Rafał Lemkin, totalitarian criminal law, Nazi criminal law, legal sciences of the interwar period.