Paul Johann Anselm von Feuerbach

Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach (Hainichen, Jena, November 14, 1775 – Frankfurt am Main, May 29, 1833) was a German criminalist and philosopher. He studied Law and Philosophy at the University of Jena, graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy degree.

He was the drafter of the Bavarian Penal Code in 1813, which served as a model for other European and Latin American Penal Codes, and in 1817 he was appointed president of the Ansbach Court of Appeal.

He was the author of the work Kaspar Hauser. A crime against the soul of man.

In his family, he was the father of the philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach and the mathematician Karl Wilhelm Feuerbach.

Contribution to Criminal Law

In the field of criminal law, Feuerbach was the creator of the famous maxim that consecrates the Principle of Legality in Criminal Matters:"nullum crimen, nulla pœna sine lege praevia" ("There is no crime or penalty without prior law"). In addition, inspired by the ideas of Hegel, he is one of the highest representatives of the relative theory of punishment or theory of general negative prevention, that is to say, that this must have a preventive function of crimes rather than a correction, exerting coercion both both physical and psychological on the offender and, to a higher degree, society in general.

According to the aforementioned jurist, legal institutions must be inescapably coercive, having to do so by physical coercion. This physical coercion has the purpose of limiting and, if possible, ending the injuries to the legal order in two ways: previously, when it prevents an injury not yet consummated, which can both take place by coercion in order to give a guarantee in favor of the threatened as, also, immediately bending the physical force of the insulting directed to the legal injury. Subsequent to the injury, forcing the offender to make reparation or replacement.

If the physical is not enough, then the psychological one arises, thus making play the general prevention that is always prior to the crime.

The penalty is intended to intimidate everyone, as possible protagonists of future legal injuries, who are inspired by their sensual impulses. General prevention, through intimidation, also has as its objective the effective application of the legal sanction, since otherwise, the threat would not make sense. Threatening something that is then not carried out is obviously not logical and goes against the initial idea of a threat.

Feuerbach's principle of criminal legality has been of great influence in Criminal Law. Many Penal Codes have it written in the text of it. More recently, it has been considered by the philosophical doctrine of Guarantees as merely criminal legality, to distinguish it from the principle of strict criminal legality, created by Luigi Ferrajoli. This principle of strict penal legality has greater rigor and scope. It can be described in this way: there is no crime, penalty or judicial measure without a prior, official, written, strict, public and certain law.