German criminal proceedings are in a phase of transition: According to the ideas of the historic legislator, the main trial is the central phase of penal proceedings, whereas the preliminary proceedings are of a merely preparatory nature. More recently however, the last-mentioned stage of the proceedings has gained increasing importance. As more and more criminal charges are dealt with in summary procedures, the results of the investigation procedure ever more frequently are gaining a decisive influence on the outcome of the proceedings. This development was covered by a conference held at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Bielefeld, which was attended by scholars from various disciplines and practitioners from different legal professions. In this anthology, the presentations held at the conference are published. With contributions by: Matthias Jahn, Ralf Neuhaus, Michael Lindemann, Thomas Fischer, Carl W. Heydenreich, Bernd Schunemann, Christoph Gusy, Karsten Altenhain, Tobias Singelnstein, Lars Rademacher, Ralf Kolbel, Margarete Grafin von Galen, Jens Lanfer, Susanne Forster, Martina Ullrich, Reinhard Kreissl, Stephan Schleim, Folker Bittmann