JUSTICE - No. 66

41 Spring 2021 have already been tried and tested. This would have to be flanked by a legislative package that obligates the operators of the social networks to cooperate with corresponding requests from the platform. This approach could avoid the problem of incompetent processing of reports and also leave law enforcement explicitly to the state. The cost of such a measure seems to be currently deterring the state from this method of combating hate on the internet. Despite all the problems of the NetzDG, the proposed legislation is noteworthy. The legislators are indeed addressing the improvement of law enforcement in the form of the NetzDG with their legislative bundle. On the preventive side, the increase in antisemitic crimes is being countered in the form that — flanking the NetzDG — the perpetrator's antisemitic motives are now to be explicitly taken into account in sentencing. This is achieved in Section 46 of the StGB by explicitly naming an increase in the sentence in the case of antisemitic motives on the part of the perpetrator as a further example of inhuman motives. This addition now clarifies that when an antisemitic motive is present in criminal offenses, it must be taken into account in sentencing, with a view to increasing the penalty. This applies to all criminal offenses, from insults to bodily harm and manslaughter. 37 Since this amendment is also part of the same legislative package which contains the NetzDG — although the latter is in need of repair — this change in general criminal law cannot yet enter into force, because the entire legislative package needs to be ratified together as one. Nevertheless, it clearly demonstrates that lawmakers do not want to idly stand by, but rather actively counter the increased number of antisemitic crimes in Germany. n Steffen Kaemper, LL.M. is a lawyer (specializing in IP law) and notary public based in Germany. He worked for an international law firm in Hamburg, Germany, for several years and is now partner at his law firmKaemper &Maiwald (Gueterloh, Germany). Mirco Stellbrink is currently a trainee lawyer and research attorney at the law firm Kaemper & Maiwald (Gueterloh, Germany). 37. Supra note 24, p. 18.