Pietje Block M.A.

My name is Pietje Block. I studied law at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen from 2018 to 2025, complemented by a semester abroad in Turku, Finland. I completed my studies with the First State Examination (Erste Prüfung).
My research interests mainly lie in criminal justice and criminology. Nonetheless, I am eager to learn from other disciplines. That is why I am pursuing my doctoral studies within the research environment of the RTG 2987. I enjoy challenging myself by adopting different perspectives and improving my own work by doing so.
Previously, I worked at the Chair of Criminal Law and Criminology at the University of Göttingen, where I participated in projects promoting international exchange and cooperation among various actors in the legal field. My previous work primarily focused on penal law and correctional treatment (Straf- und Maßregelvollzug).

The penalization of people smuggling is justified by humanitarian motives, referring in particular to the risks to migrants’ life and limb during smuggling operations (EU COM(2021) 591 final).
In my doctoral project, I aim to examine whether there are shifts in the attribution of criminal responsibility in cases of human smuggling. At the national level, § 96 AufenthG is intended to target organized, profit-oriented, and ruthless smuggling networks. However, due to the breadth of the provision, altruistic helpers and even refugees themselves may also fall under the definition of smugglers. The individuals who plan smuggling operations and reap the greatest profits are often not those who actively assist migrants on the ground when crossing borders. Instead, various actors participate in the smuggling process at different stages. The project seeks to analyse the discursive and legal reinterpretation of smuggling by drawing on criminological theories.
To maximize the analytical scope, the research must go beyond the German regulatory framework. In this respect, the project will benefit from comparative legal perspectives. The doctoral project aims to combine doctrinal legal analysis, empirical legal research, and sociological theory development.
Ultimately, the goal is to develop doctrinal and legal-policy recommendations on how criminal law instruments can be designed in a more targeted way—and how to draw a clearer line between legitimate crime prevention and migration-policy-driven repression.