Tímarit lögfræðinga - 01.10.1989, Page 8

2. Relations to Iceland. — Within the limits of my fragmentary
knowledge of Icelandic criminal law, I shall try to parallel the con-
clusions of every section of my lecture with the situation in the field
of criminal policy in your country. My source is, first, the already
mentioned German translation of the “General Icelandic Criminal Law”,
Statute No. 19 of February 12, 1940 which we have published in 1961
in the “Sammlung ausserdeutscher Strafgesetzbiicher in deutscher
Úbersetzung”, No. 78. This work has a foreword contributed by Dr.
Thórdur Eyjólfsson, then President of the Supreme Court of Iceland.
It is particulary informative as it represents his introduction to the
Explanatory Statement accompanying the Bill of the new criminal law
of Iceland. Secondly, I studied Professor Thormundson’s paper en-
titled “Der sogenannte Neoklassizismus im Verháltnis zur nordischen
bzw. islándischen Kriminalpolitik”. It was read at the German-Scandi-
navian Criminal Law Colloquium of May 1985 held at the Max-Planck-
Institute in Freiburg. Thirdly, I had the privilege of reading the
manuscripts of the contributions to the already mentioned German-
Icelandic Symposium on criminal law, particulary the papers given by
Professor Líndal and Professor Páll Sigurdsson on the historical
background. Also that presented by Attorney General Hallvardur
Einvai'dsson on the more recent development of the criminal law
in force was important for me. Furthermore I studied, with great
interest, Professor Thormundsson’s lecture, delivered on the same oc-
casion, on “Die Strafbarkeit der Wirtschaftskriminalitát bei gewerb-
licher Betátigung juristischer Personen”. This adds important
information on the criminal responsibility of legal entities and on the
problem of the imputation of guilt in such cases.
On this certainly too limited basis I shall try to relate my address
to existing Icelandic criminal law. In this way I hope to make it as
useful as possible to my distinguished audience.
FIRST PART: A brief survey of the evolution of criminal policy
in Europe since the 18th century.
1. Classicism. — At the beginning of the evolution of the modern
theory of criminal law, that is during the period of Enlightenment, in
the second half of the 18th century, criminal policy was dominated by
the philosophy of individual justice and limited as to its scope to
general prevention. The main demands for reform to abate the cruelty
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