Database of Case Law

This database contains relevant cases from German and international case law with regard to trafficking in persons (for labour exploitation and for sexual exploitation) and labour exploitation. Moreover, it deals with related offences such as wage usury, control over a prostitute and rape. The database was established in the context of the project “Forced Labour Today” and was handed over for continuation to the KOK e.V. in 2013. The project “Forced Labour Today” is carried out by the German Institute for Human Rights in cooperation with the Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" (EVZ) and is financed by the latter.

Beside criminal court decisions the database quotes court decisions from other fields of law concerning the rights of affected persons, e.g. compensation for material and immaterial damages, wage claims, state compensation or right of residence.
It includes both court decisions that have already been published in commercial databases as well as so far unpublished decisions.

The case collection can be used as a source for examples of legal lines of argument by legal practitioners representing trafficked persons. Target groups are lawyers, counsellors of trafficked persons and persons affected by labour exploitation as well as the expert public. In order to ensure an easy first orientation, the judicial proceedings have been summarised. In addition, the (anonymised) verdicts can be viewed in full length (in German only) in pdf format.

The original German version of the case collection is in the process of being built up. New cases are constantly included. Therefore, we are grateful for any information on further relevant cases.

The English version at hand consists of 44 cases, less than in its German counterpart, and therefore cannot represent a systematic analysis of German jurisdiction in the area. This is due to the fact that there is no regular funding for the translation from German into English. The translation was made possible through funding by the KOK e.V. in the framework of the European project Comp.Act – European Action for Compensation for Trafficked Persons – and in close cooperation with the German Institute for Human Rights. We hope to be able to include more English case summaries in the future.