Author(s):
Martin Klein

Institution:
Hochschule für Polizei und öffentliche Verwaltung Nordrhein-Westfalen

Title:
Combatant status of the police

Abstract:
The treatise takes up a discussion from the production of military and civilian defense capability and turns to the question of whether police forces in Germany should receive a humanitarian-international law combatant status. For this purpose, this status is explained and the main implications of granting combatant status to the police are discussed. There is no necessity to grant combatant status; the police can also perform the tasks assigned to them within the framework of overall defense without combatant status. Rather, various problems would arise: The constitutionally mandated separation of police and military in international armed conflicts would be lifted, and the police would become a military actor. This would have far-reaching consequences: The police would be obliged to apply humanitarian international law. Training, equipment, and operational principles would have to be adjusted. Problems could also arise for the functioning of criminal justice, as combatants in the event of conflict are considered prisoners of war. Finally, the police would become a legitimate military target and would thereby lose the currently existing international legal protection.

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