The Constitutio Criminalis Carolina (sometimes shortened to Carolina) is recognised as the first body of German criminal law (''

Strafgesetzbuch ''Strafgesetzbuch'' (), abbreviated to ''StGB'', is the German penal code. History In Germany the ''Strafgesetzbuch'' goes back to the Penal Code of the German Empire passed in the year 1871 on May 15 in Reichstag which was largely identica ...

''). It was also known as the '' Halsgerichtsordnung'' (Procedure for the judgment of capital crimes) of Charles V. Its basis was the ''Halsgerichtsordnung'' of Bamberg (also known as the ''Bambergensis'') drawn up by Johann Freiherr von Schwarzenberg in 1507, which in turn went back to the humanistic school of

Roman law Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Ju ...

. The Carolina was agreed in 1530 at the Diet of Augsburg under Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V Charles V may refer to: * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise * Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690) * Infa ...

and ratified two years later at the Diet in Regensburg (1532) (which was judicially a ''

Hoftag A ''Hoftag'' (pl. ''Hoftage'') was the name given to an informal and irregular assembly convened by the King of the Romans, the Holy Roman Emperor or one of the Princes of the Empire, with selected chief princes within the empire. Early scholarsh ...

'', an informal meeting), at which point it became law. It predominantly covered civil law alongside criminal law. Under the terms of the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina, actions such as murder, manslaughter, robbery, arson, homosexual relations, and

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...

were henceforth defined as severe crimes. In particular, the Carolina specified that those found guilty of causing harm through witchcraft should be executed with fire, laying the foundation for the mass

witch trial A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern perio ...

s between 1580 and 1680. It was also the basis for the use of obtaining confessions by

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

. The aim of the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina was to unify the legal system of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

, and thereby put an end to the penal jurisdiction which had until then varied haphazardly between the Empire's states. The Carolina succeeded in this despite a

severability clause In law, severability (sometimes known as salvatorius, from Latin) refers to a provision in a contract or piece of legislation which states that if some of the terms are held to be illegal or otherwise unenforceable, the remainder should still appl ...

under which the Carolina only had subsidiary importance to the particular laws of the

Imperial Estate An Imperial State or Imperial Estate ( la, Status Imperii; german: Reichsstand, plural: ') was a part of the Holy Roman Empire with representation and the right to vote in the Imperial Diet ('). Rulers of these Estates were able to exercise si ...

s. This severability clause was necessary to secure the assent of the Imperial Estates, which wanted to hold on to their own legal and legislative powers. Nevertheless, the severability clause did not detract from the Carolina's unification of the legal system and its reformatory effect on criminal law was indisputable. Further historical importance of the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina arises from the fact that this was the first adoption of the canonical Italian legal institute of the

inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

. Earlier criminal law only dealt with accusations of the victim of the crime without making inquiries of its own. The inquisition gave the court the chance to examine a case on its own accord and to find a judgement basing only on facts without being restricted by the interests of the parties.

References

* Carnell, Elisabeth:
Crimen Excepta: Torture, Jesuits and Witches in Early Seventeenth Century Germany
' * Geus, Elmar: ''Mörder, Diebe, Räuber: historische Betrachtung des deutschen Strafrechts von der Carolina bis zum Reichsstrafgfesetzbuch.'' Berlin: Scrîpvaz-Verlag Krauskopf 2002 * Latein-pagina.de:

' * Malblank, Julius Friedrich: ''Geschichte der peinlichen Gerichtsordnung von Kaiser Karl V.'', Nuremberg, Grattenauer, 1782 (Reprint: Goldbach, Keip 1998, ) * Schroeder, Friedrich-Christian: ''Die peinliche Gerichtsordnung Kaiser Karls V. und des Heiligen Römischen Reichs von 1532 = (Carolina).'', Stuttgart: Reclam, 2000,

External links

* ''This article is based on a translation of the corresponding German-language Wikipedia article.'' * Further reading fro
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{{Authority control German criminal law Criminal codes Legal history of the Holy Roman Empire 1530 in law 1530 in the Holy Roman Empire Witch trials in Germany