Intimsphäre und Zeugenpflicht

In German criminal proceedings, witnesses are obliged to testify on anything that may be relevant for finding the truth. This includes information on intimate matters, such as illness and sexual conduct. In recent years, however, the importance of privacy interests has gained strong support in national and international human rights law, whereas the emphasis on truth-finding in the German criminal process has declined. It is doubtful, therefore, whether the absolute priority of the interest in truth-finding, as proclaimed by German courts under the Code of Criminal Procedure, still provides an acceptable solution for the conflict between the interests of justice and of privacy. In this book, Gudrun Fink develops reasonable compromise solutions which also take legitimate defence interests into account.
Gudrun Fink is a judge in the district of the State Court of Appeals of Düsseldorf.