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The Mongolian Penal System from the Perspective of the German Criminal Law

Kh. Erdem-Undrakh (Mongolia)

Ph.D. Project

The Mongolian Penal System from the Perspective of the German Criminal Law

The main characteristics of the present mongolian criminal law and its sanction system had been developed in the 1920ies. Till now some important developments of the legal practice in Mongolia were made by the way of recreation, changes and reforms.

The new starting-points for questions of criminal law and of criminology respectively and also the resulting need for research were generated in the last two decades in connection with a radical change in society, politics and economy. Such changes are for example the political turn of events after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the transition to a multi-party-system and to parliamentary democracy in the beginning of the 1990ies. Also has to be mentioned the questions of economical transformation from planned economy to free market economy, new kinds of criminality, raising problems by alcohol and drugs, new poverty and street children situation. The first democratic constitution of 1992 was the basis for Mongolia to become a modern state, which was “democratic, in accordance with the rule of law and respecting human rights”. Since that time the political discussion about law in Mongolia is referred to a modern criminal law, which is looking forward and orientated to the values of constitutional state.

The criminal law sanctions had to be developed in accordance with the rule of law, which means to be up to the standards of humanity and of constitutional state. The principles of proportionality and of humanity were observed. During the phase of transformation the criminal code of 1990-1992 brought substantial amendments, which does not yet meet or cannot reach the standards of modern international law. There is an urgent need for a new criminal code, which would cause a revolutionary reform of criminal law.

The Mongolian criminal law and the sanction system had been fundamentally changed by the legislative reform of criminal law of 01.02.2002. Even twelve years were needed to create a new “not-socialist” criminal code.

Goals of this study are, first of all, to describe and to analyse the development of the Mongolian criminal sanction system. Afterwards it should be tried to point out its perspectives on a long run concerning suggestions for regulation and attempts of reform. The study also takes a comprehensive look of historical development of sanction system. The conception of the Mongolian criminal policy is taken as basis to discuss and analyse in a normative and empirical way, which elements of sanction system must be criticised, where changes are possible or if changes happened. Also the implementation in praxis will be examined. Simultaneously empirical researches will be done using publicly available statistics and court files. As well the method of secondary analysis will be applied to existing material and dates referred this theme. Also it will be conducted a survey about the sort of punishment, the sentence, the abolition of death penalty etc.

Furthermore the thesis will give a short review the German sanction system and analyses how to asses the reformed Mongolian sanction system from the point of view of German criminal law. Finally the attempt will be made to investigate the performance of German legal system in Mongolia, which is based on the model of German legal system.

Research Interests and Goals

Criminal Law, Criminal Sanctions, Human Rights

Curriculum vitae

April 2008 to present PhD Candidate of the International Max Planck Research School on Retaliation, Mediation and Punishment (IMPRS REMEP) at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg i.Br., Germany
February 2004 Master of Law (LL.M), Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany Thesis: Die demokratische Legitimation des Richters am EuGH
June 1998 Bachelor Degree in Law, Faculty of Law, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar