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The article deals with the responsibility of the financial sector under criminal law in Germany. This question has been of special interest since the beginning of the financial crisis. The author argues that the transactions of asset-backed securities based on American subprime mortgages fulfill all legal elements of the criminal offence "breach of trust" (Untreue). From the author's point of view, the people's legal loyalty would be severely affected if there were no criminal proceedings against such bankers who purchased those toxic asset-backed securities without sufficient information on their structure and value. Refraining from criminal prosecution even in cases causing high loss would send a dangerous signal towards the investment banking industry.
Analyzing the role of Germany as a law-exporting nation the essay deals with a very specific aspect of the Rule of Law principle in criminal proceedings. The author describes the division of functions among police, public prosecution and criminal courts within criminal law enforcement in Germany adding some comparative law remarks. He furthermore provides an overview of structure and organization of the public prosecution in Germany. He focuses on the relationship and interaction between public prosecution and police in preliminary proceedings emphazising the importance of both being allocated in different ministries of the executive branch. Thus he points out yet another aspect of the constitutional principle of the Rule of Law: the role of public prosecution as guardian of the law towards the police in criminal proceedings.
