Professor Hans Achenbach, Ph.D.

Retired university professor of criminal law and criminal procedure, as well as economic and tax criminal law

About the person

Born in 1941
Studied in Göttingen
1972: Doctorate from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
1973: Second State Examination in Law in Hanover
1973–1978: Research assistant to Prof. Dr. Claus Roxin at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
1978–1980: Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at Ruhr University Bochum
From there, moved to Osnabrück University in 1980 as the first professor of the newly founded School of Law
Served as its first dean in 1980–81
Holds the Chair of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, Economic and Tax Criminal Law
Member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Studies Institute of Finance and Taxation, the Institute of Procedural Law and Comparison of Proceedings, and the Economic Criminal Law Institute
2000 to 2010: Contributed to the LL.M. program in Economic Criminal Law at Osnabrück University
2000 to 2002: Member of the Lower Saxony Expert Commission on Judicial Reform under the Lower Saxony Minister of Justice in Hanover
Retired on September 30, 2005
2008 to 2010: Member of the Interministerial Working Group on “Antitrust Administrative Offenses” of the Federal Ministries of Economics and Technology and of Justice, meeting at the Federal Cartel Office in Bonn

White-collar crime law, with a particular focus on the law governing economic administrative offenses and corporate sanctions
Criminal Procedure Law
Fundamentals of Criminal Law Theory
Author of the study “Historical and Dogmatic Foundations of the Systematic Theory of Guilt in Criminal Law,” 1974
Co-author of the commentary on the Code of Criminal Procedure (Alternative Commentaries series), 1992 and 1996; in Löffler, Press Law, 4th ed. 1997, 5th ed. 2006, 6th ed. 2015 and 7th ed. 2023; in the Frankfurt Commentary on the GWB, 1994 to 2000, and the Frankfurt Commentary on Antitrust Law, 2001 to present, as well as in Baums/Thoma and Baums/Thoma/Verse, Commentary on the Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act, 2004 to present
Co-editor of and co-author in Achenbach/Ransiek, Handbook of Economic Criminal Law, 1st ed. 2004, 2nd ed. 2008, 3rd ed. 2012, and Achenbach/Ransiek/Rönnau, Handbook of Economic Criminal Law, 4th ed. 2015, 5th ed. 2019, 6th ed. 2024
Co-author of Roxin/Achenbach, Criminal Procedure Law (Test Your Knowledge), 16th ed. 2006, 17th ed. 2019 (continued by Jäger/Heinrich)
Author of regular case law reports on white-collar crime in the Neue Zeitschrift für Strafrecht since 1988