Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T15:17:38.275Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Donations Granted Amongst “Friends” in Public Office— Kindness or Corruption?—There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Holger Niehaus

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

When former state president C. Wulff stood accused of having received benefits from a film producer known to him for several years, he argued: “Is a politician not entitled to have friends?” Before such background, the question of where to draw the line between social life of a public servant or politician and criminal behavior arises. Are such persons subject to permanent threat of criminal prosecution if they accept invitations etc., or is it their obligation to the general public to refrain from accepting donations from persons who have interests in their decisions, even if these persons are long known friends of the public servant?

Type
Special Issue Ethical Challenges of Corrupt Practices
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 17 , Issue 1: Special issue - Ethical Challenges of Corrupt Practices , 2016 , pp. 41 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 See Leyendecker, Hans, 21 Nichtigkeiten, Süddeutsche Zeitung Mag. 21 (Apr. 8, 2013).Google Scholar

2 See id. Google Scholar

3 Landgericht [LG] [Regional Court of Hannover], Reference number 40 KLs 6/13 (Feb. 27, 2014), https://openjur.de/u/750690.html.Google Scholar

4 Strafgesetzbuch [StGB] [Penal Code] § 331 (2015).Google Scholar

5 LG, Reference number 40 KLs 6/13, at paras. 1–3.Google Scholar

6 Id. at recital 207.Google Scholar

7 Id. at recital 268 f.Google Scholar

8 Id. Google Scholar

9 See Kriele, Martin, The Power of the Media, 45 Zeitschrift für Rechtspolitik 53, 55 (2012).Google Scholar

10 Interview with Heribert Prantl (Deutschlandfunk, Dec. 20, 2013) (“Wulff derserves an acquittal.”).Google Scholar

11 See the press report about the presentation of his book “Ganz oben Ganz unten”, available at Beck-online: becklink 1032955.Google Scholar

12 See Otto, Harro, Grundkurs Strafrecht, § 1 margin number 66 (7th ed. 2004).Google Scholar

13 Strafgesetzbuch [StGB] [Penal Code] §§ 331, 333 (2015).Google Scholar

14 See Jörg Eisele in: Adolf Schönke/Horst Schröder, Strafgesetzbuch, preliminary remarks to § 13, margin number 69 f. (29th ed. 2014).Google Scholar

15 See Gift of Students Accepted: Teacher Has to Pay 4,000 Euro Fine, SPIEGEL Online (Jan. 7, 2015) [hereinafter Gift of Students], www.spiegel.de/schulspiegel/berlin-lehrerin-unter-korruptionsverdacht-wegen-skulptur; Strafprozessordnung [StPO] [Code of Criminal Procedure] § 153(a).Google Scholar

16 Gift of Students, supra note 15, at 1.Google Scholar

17 See Hans Herbert von Arnim, Acceptance of benefits by the former Minister President of Lower Saxony Christian Wulff?, 31 New Journal for Administrative Law (NVwZ) 141 (2012); Hans Herbert von Arnim, Warum der Bundespräsident nicht zurücktreten kann, 31 New Journal for Administrative Law (NVwZ-Extra), 1, 2 (2012), http://rsw.beck.de/rsw/upload/NVwZ/NVwZ-Extra_2012_03.pdf.Google Scholar

18 Strafgesetzbuch [StGB] [Penal Code] §§ 331, 333.Google Scholar

19 Landgericht [LG] [Regional Court of Hannover], Reference number 40 KLs 6/13, recital 268 (Feb. 27, 2014), https://openjur.de/u/750690.html.Google Scholar

20 Strafgesetzbuch [StGB] [Penal Code] § 331.Google Scholar

21 See Bundesgerichtshof [BGH] [Federal Court of Justice] May 11, 2001, Entscheidungen des Bundesgerichtshofes in Strafsachen [BGHSt] 47, pp. 22, 25; Thomas Fischer, Strafgesetzbuch, § 331, annotation 2 (63nd ed. 2015).Google Scholar

22 See Hans Herbert von Arnim, Acceptance of benefits by the former Minister President of Lower Saxony Christian Wulff?, supra note 17.Google Scholar

23 Strafprozessordnung [StPO] [Code of Criminal Procedure] § 170.Google Scholar

24 Id. at §§ 153, 153(a).Google Scholar

25 Remark attributed to Pope Giovanni di Lorenzo de Medici (“Leo X,” 1475–1521).Google Scholar

26 See the “Claassen-case”: Bundesgerichtshof [BGH] [Federal Court of Justice], Oct. 14, 2008, Neue Juristische Wochenschrift [NJW] 2008, 3580.Google Scholar

27 See Personal Loans: Wulff Resists Deception Allegation, Spiegel Online (Dec. 13, 2011), http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/privatkredit-wulff-wehrt-sich-gegen-taeuschungsvorwurf-a-803353.html.Google Scholar